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EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 



AN ARGUMENT 

FOR THE 

SALVATION OF INFANTS, 

WITH 

CONSOLATIONS FOR BEREAVED PARENTS, 

TO WHICH ARE ADDED, 

ORIGINAL AND SELECTED POEMS, 

Oil the same Subject. ^ 



„ i'" 



BY 



GEO. W. BETHUNE, 

Minister of the Third Reformed Dutch Church, Philadelphia. 



' '^ IN THE NAME OF THE HOLT CHILD JESUS ! 

PHILADELPHIA : 

MENTZ & ROVOUDT, 53 NORTH THIRD STREET. 

John C. Cl£.rk, Printer. 

1646. 




y^ 



/ti 



o1 



^\<^ 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in May, 1846, by 

Geo. W. Bethune, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of 

Pennsylvania. 



I r / x- 



\ 



I 



^ TO 

) THE MOTHER 

OF 

* THE PRECIOUS CHILD, 



WHOSE 

EARLY ASSUMPTION TO HEAVEN 

WAS 

THE IMMEDIATE OCCASION 

OF 

THE FOLLOWING PAGES, 

THEY ARE 

RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY 
DEDICATED. 



PREFACE. 



The Author, having long felt the want of a little 
book for the comfort of bereaved parents, has writ- 
ten the following pages in the hope that they may 
be useful. He would far rather have suggested to 
his publishers a reprint of some work by a more 
able pen, but could not find one answering the 
purpose. There are extant several treatises on the 
doctrine of Infant Salvation, which well repay a 
studious perusal ; yet the style of those he has seen, 
is too elaborate and scholastic for the bruised spirit 
of a mourner; while occasional sermons on the 
death of Httle children have scarcely sufficient ful- 
ness for general application. What success has 
followed his endeavours to avoid such defects, the 



VI PREFACE. 



reader must judge ; but his aim has been to make 
the argument scriptural and the consolation evan- 



gelical. 



He has written, also, from a strong conviction, 
that the scheme of Christian faith taught by the 
Articles of the Reformed Churches in harmony 
with those of Geneva, which has been so often 
foully accused of consigning departed infants to a 
miserable eternity, affords the only satisfactory 
hope of their salvation. In this, as in every other 
respect, the doctrine of free sovereign grace 
through the vicarious merits of Jesus Christ, will 
be found to be most accordant with the merciful 
glory of God and the divine teachings of our ever 
blessed Lord, 

It was not thought necessary to confirm the po- 
sitions taken by citing human authorities of the 
highest and best accredited orthodoxy, though they 
might easily have been noted, as they were plenti- 
fully at hand; but the scriptural references have 
been carefully made, that the reader might be led 



PREFACE. Vll 

to search and see whether these things are so. If, 
therefore, a clerical brother should miss what he 
may deem desirable in a monograph upon an im- 
portant branch of theology, let him be so kind as 
to remember that the design of this essay is the 
comfort of the sorrowful, not the instruction of the 
learned. The latter task would be above the Au- 
thor's pretensions ; the former within his office as 
a minister of Him who was sent " to bind up the 
broken-hearted ;" and all to whom this little book 
may come, will pardon his failures as they have 
the proof of his pains. Yet he is not without ex- 
pectation of reward from the grateful blessing of 
those for whose bleeding affections there is Balm 
in Gilead, though the hand, which would apply it, 
may not be as skilful, as it means to be kind. 



NOTE 



After every part of this little book had been 
fully prepared, and a portion of it had passed 
through the press, the very full and valuable work 
of the Rev. Dr. Smyth, on the same subject, was 
published by Mr. Carter, to whose enterprise the 
Christian public is so largely indebted. Had the 
Author known the intentions of his most estimable 
and learned brother, he would certainly not have 
attempted to follow. He cannot now draw back; 
as engagements with his own excellent publishers 
require him to run the risk of comparison between 
his smaller volume and one which is evidently the 
fruit of much research and pious zeal. Still he 
hopes, that, though both have been written with 
the same purpose, there will be found sufficient 
variety in the manner to secure some gleanings of 
usefulness for the later publication. 

April, 1846. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter I. 



introduction. Death of Children. Anguish of be- 
reaved Parents. Consolation in the Gospel. 
The doctrine of Infant Salvation stated, - 13 

Chapter II. 

I. The purpose of the Redemption. II. The me- 
thod of Salvation. III. The connexion of 
Christ's office as Judge with his work as Sa- 
viour, 22 

Chapter III. 

IV. The favour of God in Christ towards little 
Children, as exhibited under the Old Testa- 
ment, 43 

Chapter IV. 

V. The favour of God in Christ to little Children, 

as shown under the New Testament, - - 51 

Chapter V. 

VI. The multitude of the Redeemed out of all na- 
tions, includes all infants. Vindication of 
Providence. The glory of Christ in his little 



X CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Chapter VI. 

The Gospel the only scheme of pity for little Chil- 
dren. Cruelty of Heathenism. Infanticide. 
Classic philosophy. Sacramental Regenera- 
tion. Salvation by works. The Infant saved 
by Christ alone, - 86 

Chapter VIL 

Affliction from God and comfort only from Him, 
through Jesus Christ, to the penitent. Les- 
sons of affliction for the unconverted. Ex- 
hortation to repentance and faith, - - 96 

Chapter VIII. 

Afflictions of the believer not strange. No chas- 
tisement without actual suffering. Sorrow 
not forbidden, but should be regulated. I. Our 
afflictions part of Providence ; as regards our- 
selves : as regards others : as regards the Di- 
vine glory, ---_.-- 107 

Chapter IX. 

Farther considerations to regulate grief. II. Our 
remaining mercies. We deserve nothing, yet 
have Christ, the unspeakable gift of God. 
III. Our duties. Sorrow should not make us 
unfaithful. Zeal of Christ in his affliction. 
Consolation in doing good. IV. The sympa- 
thy of Christ for his people. The God-man. 
The Man of Sorrows. His strength perfect 
in our weakness. V. The Rest awaiting us. 



CONTENTS. XI 

PAGE 

No satisfaction promised here. Salvation by 
hope. The far more exceeding and eternal 
glory, - - 136 

Chapter X. 

Special consolation for Christians bereaved of Chil- 
dren. Adapted to parental hopes. I. The co- 
venant with God. The promise of God ful- 
filled by the death of the Child, - - - 160 

Chapter XI. 

11. The little one escaped from pain. III. The 
little one forever free from sin. IV. The little 
one perfect in the knowledge of God. To go 
and be with Christ and his little ones is far 
better. The author's parting words, - - 173 



CONSOLATORY VERSES, 

ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 

Early Lost, Early Saved. — Geo. W. Bethune, - 191 
An Expostulation with one who pitied a Dying 

Child. — Carom AiA, J 94 

On a Fair Infant.— Milton, - - - - 197 

Hymn to Night. — Geo. W. Bethune, - - 199 

On the Death of an Infant, - - - _ - 201 

The Dying.— Thomas Hood, - - - - 203 

Little Children, 204 

The Farewell to the Dead.— Mrs. Hemans, - 205 

The Joy of the Dead.— Giles Fletcher, ^ - 208 



xu 



CONTENTS. 



O, Stay those Tears. — Andrews Norton, 

Weep not for Her! — Noctes Ambrosian^e, 

Low she Lies, who blest our Eyes. — Mrs. Norton, 

To an Infant in Heaven. — Thomas Ward, 

Oh ! say not 'twere a keener Blow. — T. H. Bayly 

Death of the First-born. — Willis Gaylord Clark 

My Child. — Rev. John Pierpont, 

On the Death of a Son. — W. B. O. Peaeody, 

On seeing an Infant prepared for the Grave. — Mrs 

SiGOURNEY, 

The Spirit of the Departed.— T. K. Hervey, 
Thoughts while making a Grave for a First Child 

born Dead. — N. P. Willis, 
The Grave. — James G. Brooks, 
I hear thy Voice, O Spring. — W. J. Pabodie, 
A Psalm of Death. — H. W. Longfellow, 
The Dying Boy. — J. H. Bright, 

A Dirge, 

To a Dying Infant, . - . . - 
The Three Sons; or, Faith Triumphant. — Rev. J 

Moultrie, A.M. - - . - - 
A Desire after Death, as the Entrance into Life 

Caromaia, -----, 
Lines suggested by a Passage in a Friend's Let 

ter. — Geo. W. Bethune, 



PAGE 

209 
210 
212 
214 
216 
217 
219 
222 

223 
225 

227 
230 
231 
232 
234 
238 
239 

241 

247 

248 



EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 



THE ARGUMENT. 



CHAPTER I. 

Introduction. Death of Children. Anguish of bereaved 
Parents. Consolation in the Gospel. The doctrine 
of Infant Salvation stated. 

It is a painful, but ascertained fact, that one- 
half of our human family die within seven years, 
the greater part of these within one year from the 
time of their birth. This were enough to excite 
the inquiry of a pious philanthropist after the rea- 
son and issue of so melancholy a dispensation; 
nor will he be satisfactorily answered by the 
Scriptural doctrine that death has passed, because 
of sin, upon all the descendants of the first Adam 
(Rom. V. 12), unless he can see what part the 

B 



14 THE FIRST AND SECOND ADAM. 

little ones have in the mediation of the second 
Adam, Christ Jesus our Lord. If " life more 
abundantly" (John x. 10), "grace much more 
abounding," over the condemnation (Rom. v. 20), 
be granted to every sinner who trusts in the righ- 
teousness of Christ, so that death itself becomes 
the entrance upon a felicity incomparably trans- 
cending the happiness of man's original innocence; 
what is the purpose of "God, even the Father of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and 
the God of all comfort" (2 Cor. i. 3), toward 
those, "who are, without their knowledge, par- 
takers of the condemnation in Adam," and yet are 
not capable of the personal faith which unites to 
Christ ? Why are they born under the condem- 
nation, to die before they can be brought, through 
their own choice, under grace? 

The interest of the question is vastly greater 
with those, who have been made to take the dust 
of their beloved ones from their warm bosoms, 
and lay them in the cold, corrupting grave. The 



PARENTAL LOVE. 15 

strength of parental love is in proportion to its 
duties and trials. The mother's love grows with 
the burden near her heart, and, forgetting all her 
past pains, she makes no account of future cares, 
" for joy that her child is born into the world" 
(John xvi. 21) ; the father, as he receives his off- 
spring within his arms, is conscious of a new tie 
to life, of a fresh tenderness gushing from his 
soul, and of an intense motive for honourable ex- 
ertion. The babe's helpless dependence, anxiety 
for its slender health, hope of its riper years, as 
the harvest of their present watchful zeal, increase 
their fondness, and bind them more closely around 
their precious charge. God himself uses the fide- 
lity of the father and the mother to show his own: 
"As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord 
pitieth them that fear him" (Ps. ciii. 13); "Can a 
woman forget her sucking child, that she should 
not have compassion upon the son of her womb? 
Yea, they may forget (it is possible that so mon- 
strous a thing might occur), yet will I not forget 



16 PARENTAL ANGUISH. 

thee" (Isaiah xlix. 15); and, when he would ex- 
press the extent of his regard for our souls, he 
says: " God so loved the world, that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
him should not perish, but have everlasting life" 
(John iii. 16). 

Very bitter, then, must be a parent's anguish, if 
the object of all this tenderness, and nursing, and 
hope, be torn away ; its cradle-bed made vacant ; 
its voice hushed, no more to gladden the desolate 
house ; the many day-dreams, brightly picturing 
for it a life, long, honoured and happy, dissipated 
by sad certainty ; nothing left to tell of its brief 
being here, but a little mound in the burial-place, 
and that inextinguishable yearning known only in 
a heart, which has beat beneath the sweet pres- 
sure of a child gone to the tomb. It is a sorrow, 
which may be alleviated, and through the grace 
of Jesus sanctified, but never utterly stilled while 
the mourner lives. Other children may be given ; 
the lap and the cradle again filled; but there is a 



HAS IT NO SOLACE? 17 

chamber in the soul sacred to the unfading image 
of the early lost; and dear, above every other spot 
of earth, will be the brief grave, where its 
changed loveliness was hidden to moulder ^' out of 
sight" (Gen. xxxiii. 4). God, by his prophet, 
compares the extreme grief of repentance over the 
sufferings of Christ, ^'to the bitter mourning of a 
father for his child" (Zech. xii. 10); and, in ano- 
ther place, speaks of a bereaved mother as incon- 
solable, " refusing to be comforted because they 
are not" (Jer. xxxi. 15). 

Is there no solace for such affliction ? No pro- 
mise of life and immortality shedding its rays upon 
the infant's mortal sleep? No warrant for faith 
to follow the young spirit, which God gave and 
so soon took away, within the eternity whence 
Christian hope draws strength under every other 
trial? Must love bury her face in despair, and 
yet say, " It is well with the child!" "Blessed 
be the name of the Lord !" 

Some may answer, that departed children are 
B 2 



18 THE ONLY COMFORT. 

in the hands of God ; and, when He has revealed 
nothing positively, we should submit without ques- 
tion to Him, who will do no injustice. But it is 
because they are in the hands of God ; because 
he has revealed mercy perfect in justice; because 
he delights in salvation, and has no pleasure in 
the death of the sinner; that we are encouraged 
to search after consolation in the books of his Gos- 
pel, which were *' written for our learning, that 
we, through patience and comfort of the Scrip- 
tures, might have hope" (Rom. xv. 4). 

The great, the only sufficient consolation for a 
bereaved Christian parent, that from which all 
other consolations must be derived, is a conviction 
of the child's immortal, sinless, blessed, perfect life 
in heaven; and the doctrine of infant salvation, 
though (like several other important doctrines of 
the evangelical creed) nowhere stated by so many 
words, is clearly taught throughout the Holy 
Scriptures, as will be shown by the following ar- 
gument. 



OUR DOCTRINE GUARDED. 19 

Let the ground of our reasoning be understood. 

It is not denied that infants are comprehended 
by the fall of Adam. There is no avoiding the 
conclusion that they are; nor should we wish to 
avoid it, since that would shut them out of grace 
in Christ. " In Adam all die" (1 Cor. xv. 22). 
There is no exception. All, who are in Adam, 
die; and, as death entered by his sin (Rom. v. 12), 
all, who die, are in Adam, fallen with him, and, 
unless redeemed by the grace of the second Adam, 
involved by the consequences of his fall. 

Nor is it denied that the moral nature of the in- 
fant is corrupt. " The Scripture hath concluded 
all under sin" (Gal. iii. 22). There is no excep- 
tion. The image of God was lost by the race, 
when it was lost by Adam, and he begat his chil- 
dren "in his own likeness, after his own image" 
(Gen. V. 3); nor can it be restored but "by re- 
newing grace" (Col. iii. 10); wherefore the apos- 
tle, writing to the converted Ephesians of the 
power of the Holy Spirit toward them and him, 



20 OUR DOCTRINE 

says: "you hath he quickened, which were dead 
in trespasses and sins .... and were by nature 
the children of wrath even as others" (Ephes. ii. 
1 — 3). The infant Jesus alone, of all our race, 
brought into the world a holy moral nature ; be- 
cause, unhke all others, he was not " shapen in 
iniquity," nor " conceived in sin" (Ps. li. 5), but 
by the '' power of the Holy Ghost" (Luke i. 35). 
Were the Scriptures less explicit, the fact would 
be clear from the universal development of sinful 
tendencies in the lives of mankind, which must be 
attributed to a common source in our common na- 
ture. 

Yet we do deny that the mortality of infants, or 
signs of their early sinfulness, are proofs against 
our doctrine. These show that infants need sal- 
vation, not that they are lost. Were they only, 
however perfectly, innocent, they could have no 
part in the redemption provided for sinners, the 
atonement for the guilty, the grace of pardon, the 
church of the sanctified. The Gospel, which pro- 



STATED. 21 

claims the good news of a Saviour for us, would 
bring to light no life and immortality for them; 
nor could they join the song of the Christian fa- 
mily above: "Unto him that loved us and washed 
us from our sins in his own blood!" Our behef 
is, that 

They are saved by Christ. 



EAELY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 



THE ARGUMENT. 



CHAPTER II. 

I. The purpose of the Redemption. II. The method of 
Salvation. III. The connexion of Christ's office as 
Judge with his work as Saviour. 

Our belief, that all, who die before they have 
passed the tender age of infancy, are saved b}^ 
Christ, is drawn, 

I. From the purpose of the redemption : The 
glory of God in the salvation of sinners. 

The glory of divine justice is more fully dis- 
played by the atonement necessary to the exercise 
of divine mercy, than it could have been by the 
immediate infliction of extreme punishment upon 
our whole race; because it shows the loving kind- 
ness of Him, whose authority has been rebelled 
against, and the impartial holiness of His sentences 



GLORY OF MERC^. 28 

denouncing wrath as the penalty of transgression. 
But this was not the great purpose. It was a 
consequence of the main design, which required a 
justification of mercy to the transgressor (Rom. iii. 
23 — 26), a reconciUation of the sinner's pardon to 
the curse against the guilty (Gal. iii. 10 — 13). 
" For God sent not his Son into the world to con- 
demn the world ;" the world w^as condemned al- 
ready; " but that the world through him might be 
saved" (John iii. 17, 18). "God so loved the 
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting hfe" (v. 16). At the same time 
we are assured, that there is no other salvation, no 
"other name under heaven given among men 
whereby they can be saved" (Acts iv. 12). Is it, 
then, according to His purpose, who "spared not 
his own Son, but delivered him up for us all" 
(Rom. viii. 32), " and is not willing that any 
should perish" (2 Peter iii. 9), to send away from 
his blessed Presence forever, so very large a part 
of all who are born into this sinful world, as they 



24 LIFE MORE ABOUNDING. 

constitute who die while yet infants; who have 
never consented to Adam's sin by any conscious 
sin of their own, never have insulted his known 
will, never rejected his Son, nor grieved his Holy 
Spirit, but were ushered into life, and brought un- 
der the condemnation of their race, without their 
personal act or knowledge? If so, then, so far as 
numbers are concerned, the apostacy exceeds the 
redemption, and the abodes of the lost will be fear- 
fully more populous than the mansions of the 
saved in their Heavenly Father's house. Let us 
harbour no such thought, but reject it altogether 
as utterly discordant with the character and pur- 
pose of Him, who is " in Christ reconciling the 
world unto himself" (2 Cor. v. 19). If the Scrip- 
tures have not declared expressly that trie dying 
infant goes to his merciful bosom, it is because so 
obvious a truth needed no such testimony. 

We draw our doctrine, 

II. From the method of salvation, which is all 
of grace. 



CHRIST THE ONLY SAVIOUR. 25 

" When we were yet without strength," says 
the apostle, " in due time Christ died for the un- 
godly" (Rom. V. 6). Sinful man was utterly un- 
able to redeem himself, or in any way or degree 
to assist his own salvation ; and, therefore, help 
was laid for him upon One mighty to save, the 
only begotten Son of God incarnate as our Elder 
Brother (Ps. Ixxxix. 19). Salvation is the work 
of Christ alone, appointed by the Father and con- 
secrated by the Holy Ghost, to be the Alpha and 
Omega, the Author and Finisher of a complete 
redemption. The only expiation for sin he has 
made in his sufferings; the only righteousness, 
which justifies the sinner, he has wrought out by 
his perfect obedience ; the only sanctification of the 
carnal heart is through the energies of his Spirit; 
the only acceptance of the believer is consequent 
upon his intercession ; the only defence of the saint 
is through his mediatorial mastery, and the resur- 
rection of the redeemed only through his victory 
"over death and him that had the power of death." 



26 SANCTIFICATION BY GRACE, 

The perfect deliverance of his people from sin 
for the glory of God, was, indeed, the purpose of 
the Mediator, for that is their perfect salvation; as 
the apostle writes to Titus (ii. 14): "Who gave 
himself for us, that he might redeem us from all 
iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people 
zealous of good works." Good works are the 
moral consequences of his effectual grace : " We 
are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto 
good works" (Ephes. ii. 10). They are the fruits 
of faith, as many passages show; the obedience 
wrought in the new-born child of God by the Spi- 
rit of adoption (Rom. viii. 14); the foresigns of 
heaven ; the beginnings of eternal life upon earth. 
So that the man of God should be " careful to 
maintain good works," from gratitude to Christ, 
from obedience to his heavenly Father, from reve- 
rence for the Holy Spirit which dwells in him, 
from a desire to vindicate religion before the 
world, and from constant anxiety to make his call- 
ing and election sure. But, as is evident from the 



TIIKOUGH FAITH. ti i 

fact that they follow, not precede, grace, his good 
works can form no part of a sinner's justification 
with God; as the apostle writes to Titus (iii. 5, 6, 
7) : " Not by works of righteousness which we 
have done, but according to His mercy he saved 
us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing 
of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abun- 
dantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that, 
being justified by his grace, we should be made 
heirs according to the hope of eternal life." 

That salvation is through faith, and promised 
only to the believer, as we know from many Scrip- 
tures, does not make it the less of grace; for faith 
is nothing else than a reliance upon the mercy of- 
fered, and, therefore, can have no more merit than 
a criminal's hearty acceptance of a free pardon. 
" By grace are ye saved through faith," says the 
apostle, "and that not of yourselves, it is the gift 
of God" (Ephes. ii. 8). The whole arrangement 
of salvation through faith is of grace, not at all of 
ourselves, it is the merciful bounty of God. In- 



28 FAITH, A GRACE. 

deed, faith itself is the effect of grace, being wrought 
in us by divine power : as the Psalmist prays: 
"Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold won- 
drous things out of thy law" (cxix. 18); and the 
apostle for the Ephesians: "That the God of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give 
unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in 
the knowledge of Him ; the eyes of your under- 
standing being enlightened that ye may know 
what is the hope of his calling, and what the 
riches of the glory of his inheritance in the 
saints" (Ephes. i. 17, 18). We cannot have 
any knowledge of the truths which we are to be- 
lieve, unless we be illuminated by the Spirit of 
God ; for " the natural man receiveth not the 
things of the Spirit of God ; for they are foolish- 
ness unto him : neither can he know them because 
they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. ii. 14). 
So also Jesus is declared to be " the Author and 
Finisher of our faith" (Heb. xii. 2) ; and for the 
same reason the disciples said to him: "Lord, in- 



FAITH, WHY REaUIRED? 29 

crease our faith !" looking to the Source of their 
faith for the enlargement of it. 

We may see some reasons why salvation is 
granted only through faith. The hlessed Saviour 
has wrought out his meritorious work on account 
of his people, taking, as the second Adam, the 
place of the first, that he might fulfil the condi- 
tions of life, which the other had failed to perform; 
and the sinner, having by his own act consented to 
the sin of his first parent, it is necessary that he 
should, by faith, ratify his acceptance of Christ's 
righteousness, as his Surety under the better cove- 
nant. Faith is also the great instrument of sanc- 
tification, because, through faith, the converted 
soul apprehends the meaning of divine truth ; dis- 
cerns the excellent constraining love of Christ, and 
feels the various motives to obedience presented 
by the Law and the Gospel. In short, without 
faith, we could not be Christians, for we should 
neither know Christ, nor love him, nor serve him. 
Faith is itself a principal and essential part of our 
c 2 



30 FAITH, WHY NOT 

salvation here, being the sight of God and commu- 
nion with him on earth, " the substance of things 
hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen" 
(Heb.xi. 1). 

Since, then, salvation is all of grace, to which 
neither our faith nor our works can contribute any 
merit, why should we not believe that saving 
grace is communicated to the souls of dying in- 
fants? In their case, the evidence and testimony 
of good works, the evidence of grace within them, 
and their outward testimony to the power of 
grace, are not needed ; for they are not capable of 
such moral acts. 

Neither is personal faith necessary to their 
union with Christ. They are not capable of ac- 
tual faith, have never consented to sin, nor re- 
jected Christ. Will the merciful Jesus reject 
them because of such positive inability? They 
are, "without their knowledge, partakers of the 
condemnation in Adam;" may they not, "with- 



REQUIRED OF INFANTS? 31 

out their knowledge, be received unto grace in 
Christ?"^ 

Cut off before the age of moral action, they 
need not the illuminating, upholding, strengthen- 
ing, moving power of faith; nor does their place 
in the world require from them a profession of it 
before men. The language of all Scripture, both 
Old and New, declares plainly, that under the dis- 
pensation of grace, which began with the first pro- 
mise (Gen. iii. 15), sinners are condemned, be- 
cause of their impenitence and unbelief. "As I 
live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn 
from his way and live : Turn ye, turn ye from 
your evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of 
Israel?" (Ezek. xxxiii. 11.) And our beloved 
Lord: " He that believeth is not condemned ; but 
he that believeth not is condemned already, be- 
cause he hath not believed in the name of the only 

* Baptismal Office of the Reformed Dutch Church. 



32 THE GUILT OF UNBELIEF. 

begotten Son of God ; and this is the condemna- 
tion, that light is come into the world, and men 
loved darkness rather than light, because their 
deeds were evil" (John iii. 18, 19). Unbelief, 
obstinate from impenitence, is the ground of their 
condemnation. The apostle also, in Romans, 
makes a long and elaborate argument to show 
that the heathen are not condemned without simi- 
lar cause, since, though they had not the law spe- 
cially revealed unto the Jews, they "were a law 
unto themselves," "their conscience also bearing 
witness, and their thoughts, the meanwhile, ac- 
cusing or else excusing one another" (Rom. ii. 
12—15. Compare x. 18—21). Will Christ 
then reject from the benefits of his own infinitely 
precious atonement, the infant that dies before it 
has any conscience, or is capable of repentance 
and faith ? 

Again we say, let not the argument be misun- 
derstood. It is not asserted that the dying infants 
of a fallen race are saved because of their inno- 



THE RANSOMED, REGENERATED. 33 

cence. There is no. salvation by innocence spoken 
of throughout the whole Bible. The doctrine is, 
that they are saved in Christ, the second Adam, 
through his expiation, his righteousness, his inter- 
cession. We believe, that He gathers them all 
under the wings of his covering atonement; that 
He clasps them safe in his almighty arms; and that 
the Father, for his sake, receives them among the 
little children of His love, to the blessed mansions 
of his heavenly house. 

Neither, is it asserted that they are saved with- 
out being renewed by the Holy Ghost. Their 
moral natures are corrupt. They are not fit for 
heaven until they are born of the Spirit. Our 
hope for them proceeds from the assumption, that, 
through the mercy of Christ, the Holy Ghost does 
renew them and sanctify them for the inheritance 
of peace. If they are saved in Christ, his Spirit 
is certainly given them, for He sanctifies all whom 
he redeems. Their incapacity to discern the truth, 
which is the great medium of the Holy Ghost 



34 THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT 

(John xvii. 17; 1 Peter i. 22, 23), does not pre- 
vent their being subjects of his sanctifying power. 
There is a previous, immediate work of the Spirit 
upon every soul brought to a saving knowledge of 
Christ, preparing it for the understanding and re- 
ception of the truth. In the parable of the sower 
(Matt, xiii.), the hearer represented as " good 
ground" (8), understood the truth (23); he, re- 
presented by the beaten "way-side" (4), did not 
(19); which is the same with what the apostle 
teaches in an afore-cited passage: "The natural 
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, 
for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he 
know them because they are spiritually discerned" 
(1 Cor. ii. 11—14). The more that the truth of 
God is pressed upon the carnal mind, the greater 
will be its enmity against the God of truth (Rom. 
viii. 7). There must be, as we have seen, an "il- 
luminating" influence, an "opening of the eyes of 
the understanding," before the truth can have its 
effect; in a word, there must be a preparation of 



ON THE HEART. 35 

the heart, a disposition, which is not natural, to 
receive and ennbrace the truth. This work of the 
Spirit cannot be expected in the case of reasoning 
persons, when the truth is not presented; as is 
shown by the command to preach the Gospel, and 
the absence of true religion where the truth is not 
proclaimed. There is a mystery here (every 
thing about regeneration is in mystery), which 
has made much dispute among theologians, with- 
out, it must be confessed, their throwing any light 
upon the matter. The fact, however, remains, 
that the Spirit ordinarily (we would say, always), 
when he converts sinners of intelligent years, does 
so with the presentation of truth ; there is an adap- 
tation of his process to their rational, accountable 
natures, which we do not attempt to explain, for 
our Lord; when questioned by Nicodemus, did 
not; yet there must be a work of the Spirit on 
the heart, opening it (Acts xvi. 14) to receive the 
truth effectually. 

Now, why may not this gracious work, this 



36 THE GRACE OF THE SPIRIT 

preparation to receive the truth, when its faculties 
are sufficiently developed, be wrought upon the 
heart of the infant, thus fitting it for the light of 
truth in heaven? Nay, we have recorded facts 
proving such gracious influence towards " little 
ones." Our divine Lord's human nature was 
sanctified in the womb of his blessed Virgin mo- 
ther. If His extraordinary conception be supposed 
to put him beyond the reach of our citation, the 
case of his Fore-runner is certainly within ity 
and he " was filled with the Holy Ghost, even 
from his mother's womb" (Luke i. 15). When 
the happy children were singing hosannas to Him 
in the temple, our holy Master rebuked the cavil- 
ling scribes by sa3dng : " Have ye never read, out 
of the mouth of babes and sucklings I have per- 
fected praise?" (Matt. xxi. 15. Ps. viii. 2.) The 
little ones are, if we may so speak, peculiarly fit- 
ted to be subjects of such saving influences. They 
offer no resistance of pride, or prejudice, or world- 
liness to the Holy Spirit, and thus, neither 



IN LITTLE CHILDREN. 37 

" wound," nor " grieve," nor ^' despise" Him ; 
wherefore our Saviour on one occasion, having 
set a little child in the midst of his disciples, said : 
" Except ye be converted, and become as little chil- 
dren, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of God; 
whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this 
little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom 
of heaven" (Matt, xviii. 3, 4) ; and on another 
occasion, when they would have kept little chil- 
dren from being brought to him : " Forbid them 
not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 
xix. 14). If a little child is a pattern of Christian- 
ity, part, at least, of conversion is returning to 
the character of little children. God, as we have 
said, adapts his methods to the circumstances of 
individuals ; those, who have the light of the Gospel, 
being responsible for the greater privileges which 
they enjoy ; and those, who are intended for spe- 
cial works, being prepared for them, often from the 
most early age. If a little child be destined to at- 
tain intelHgent years, it may be left to hear the 

D 



88 CHRIST THE SAVIOUR, 

Gospel, and be tried, like the fig tree in the para- 
ble (Luke xiii. 8, 9), whether it will profit by the 
privilege or not; but, if God determine to take 
the young spirit out of this life, before it is capa- 
ble of personal faith, he may sanctify it for heaven 
by his immediate regenerating power. Would it 
not be for the praise of the glory of His grace, 
who sent his only begotten Son, as the Restorer 
of fallen humanity, thus to make heaven glad with 
the salvation of those, whose condemnation can 
spring only from the sin of their first parent? 
Else what is the meaning of his own word, " Of 
such is the kingdom of heaven?"^ 

III. The connexion of Christ's office as the final 
Judge of the world, with his work as Saviour, 
affords additional proof of our doctrine. 

The apostle, on Mars' Hill, declares that ''now 
God commandeth all men every where to repent ; 
because he hath appointed a day, in the which he 

* Doddridge's Lectures, cxlviii. Scho. 8. 



CHRIST OUR JUDGE. 39 

will judge the world in righteousness by that man 
whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given 
assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him 
from the dead" (Acts xvii. 30, 31); which is ac- 
cording to our blessed Lord's own declaration, as 
recorded by the Evangelist (Matt. xxv. 31 — 46). 
There is especial fitness in the committal of 
final judgment to the hands of the Lord. By his 
susception of the Mediatorial office, he graciously 
undertook to save his people in a manner which 
should highly glorify the Divine justice. For this 
end, he so fully satisfied, in his own person, the 
law of God which men had broken, that he ac- 
quired the right to bestow eternal life upon as 
many as would accept the provision of his mercy 
(John i. 12). In token and reward of his perfect 
atonement, "God has highly exalted him, and 
given him a name (authority) which is above eve- 
ry name" (Phil. xi. 9); and "hath put all things 
under his feet, and given him to be Head over all 
things to his church" (Ephes. i. 22), that he 



40 THE RULE OF 

might accomplish the full and final triumph of all 
his people over all his and their enemies. " All 
power is given to him in heaven and in earth " 
(Matt, xxviii. 18); all providence is committed to 
his hands. When, therefore, the end is come, and 
in entire consistence with Divine justice, he admits 
into eternal glory all, who have believed on his name 
and heartily repented of their sins, justice still de- 
mands, that those, who would not repent and avail 
themselves of his atonement, should receive the 
condign punishment denounced by the law against 
the sinner. The Holy Mediator then assumes the 
office of vengeance, and glorifies justice by the 
condemnation of all, who refuse to accept the grace, 
which would have glorified justice in their pardon. 
This is necessary to fulfil the condition of his dele- 
gated power. Upon this principle, his exercise of 
judgment will proceed, as the Scriptures plainly 
show. It is they who will not believe (John iii. 
36, Mark xvi. 16), or repent (Luke xvi. 3, 5), or 
do good works in his name and for his sake (Matt. 



Christ's judgment. 41 

XXV. 40, 45), that shall be condemned. "Every 
one shall receive the things done in his body, ac- 
cording to that he hath done, whether it be good 
or bad" (2 Cor. v. 10). The dead shall be 
judged out of those things which are written in 
the books, according to their works (Rev. xx. 
12). Nowhere in any account of Christ's judg- 
ment, do we read of men being called to account 
for their concern with the sin of Adam, or (direct- 
ly) for their native corruption. A new test has 
been instituted by Christ: The acceptance or re- 
jection of Himself. If men reject Him, then in- 
deed, their original guilt comes upon them, fear- 
fully aggravated by their impenitence under the 
Gospel (John iii. 18, 19); as the apostle says, ''If 
the word spoken by angels (the law) was stead- 
fast, and every transgression and disobedience re- 
ceived a just recompense of reward, how shall we 
escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" (Heb. 
ii. 2, 3.) 

This being the rule of judgment by Christ, who 
d2 



42 INFANTS SAFE. 

won his power to judge by dying to save, how 
can we believe, that those, who die at a tender age, 
will be sent away from the heaven, which he has 
purchased to bestow graciously upon his people? 
How can we believe, that they will be cast into 
that horrid place of torment, which he has threat- 
ened against the despisers of his word, and where 
the remorse of a guilty conscience is like " a worm 
that dieth not," and " a fire that is not quenched?' 
They cannot be charged with impenitence, or un 
belief, or wilful disobedience to his word ; neither 
can they carry with them into eternity any con 
science of sin ; and, since He has been at such in 
finite expense to open a way of escape from the 
curse of the fall, he will surely save those, who 
can neither know their danger nor escape from 
it. Let us rather believe, that the Good Shep- 
herd, who follows so zealously even the wilful 
wanderer from his fold, will gather the lambs 
with his arm and carry them in his bosom 
(Isaiah xl. 11). Blessed be Hin name! 



EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 

THE ARGUMENT. 

CHAPTER III. 

IV. The favour of God in Christ towards little Children, 
as exhibited under the Old Testament. 

The foregoing inferences, fairly drawn from the 
plan of salvation by Jesus Christ, our ever blessed 
Lord, ought to satisfy every inquiring mind, and 
fill us with adoring, joyful gratitude, for such 
triumphs of redeeming love. The whole tenor of 
the Gospel is glad tidings of good will toward men. 
It speaks of mercy to the fullest extent (Heb. vii. 
26), wherever its consistency with justice is not 
prevented by the obstinate impenitence of sinners; 
and claims our highest praise, by putting beyond 
doubt the goodness, forbearance and holiness of 
God. Thus, we should carefully avoid such in- 



44 GOD DELIGflTS TO SAVE. 

terpretations of the Gospel, as would make Christ 
a minister of sin (Gal. ii. 17), by affording the 
impenitent hopes of safety; but our caution be- 
comes unbelief, when we confine the grace of sal- 
vation within closer limits than those which God 
has fixed. The great truth of the Gospel is, that 
God delights to save, of which He has given the 
strongest possible assurance in the mission of his 
own only begotten Son (John iii. 16). He has 
commanded his Gospel to be preached throughout 
the world, and so worded his invitations as to 
show, that whosoever will, may come and take of 
the waters of life freely (Rev. xxii. 17). There- 
fore, though He had given no tokens of regard for 
those, who, because of their tender age, cannot 
come unto hhii, nor put forth their hands to re- 
ceive his grace ; the silence itself, connected with 
the gracious spirit of what he has revealed, would 
warrant us in believing that not one of the little 
ones should perish. But Fie is not silent respect- 
inor them, nor has he refiiRed thorn tokens of his 



BABES IN THE COVENANT. 45 

special regard, as may be shown abundantly from 
his Holy Scriptures. 

IV. The favour of God in Christ toward little 
children, confirms our doctrine. 

This favour appears in the very first promise of 
mercy, for it was by the seed of the woman that 
God declared the head of the serpent should be 
bruised (Gen. iii. 15). When, therefore, our 
first mother embraced her first-born, she saw 
proof of the coming salvation in her babe, and ex- 
claimed : " I have gotten a man from the Lord " 
(Gen. iv. 1). So, throughout subsequent ages, be- 
lievers under the Old Testament looked upon their 
offspring as peculiarly precious, because proofs 
of divine faithfulness. Farther to consecrate and 
encourage this sentiment, God appointed in the 
family of Abraham the rite of circumcision, by 
which the parent manifested his faith that God 
was the God of his child. It was not possible for 
them to believe the promise of a future Redeemer, 
without seeing that their babes w^ere included by 



46 god's care 

its blessings. The child, if he lived to grow up, 
might cut himself off from the covenant by his 
own sin (Ex. xii. 15; xxxi. 14); the first-born of 
woman became the murder-cursed Cain; but the 
babe, as a babe, was from his birth an object of 
the divine favour and compassion. 

Nor was this regard confined to the children of 
God's believing people ; though, for obvious rea- 
sons, their privileges were greater. Among the 
grounds of condemnation, which, by his prophet. 
He denounces against the worshippers of Baal, not 
the least is, that they had shed the blood of many 
"innocents" (Jer. xix. 4);"^ alluding, doubtless, as 
the fifth verse shows, to the cruel custom of sacri- 
ficing young children in honour of the demon. It 
was an aggravation of the crime that these chil- 
dren were descendants of the covenanted fathers, 
from whose faith their more immediate parents 
had apostatized ; yet the prophet does not speak 

* Compare Ezekiel xvi. 17, '' my children." 



OF in:socents. 47 

of them in that character, but as "innocents," 
and, therefore, becauseof their helpless innocency, 
peculiarly objects of the divine care."^" 

Another remarkable passage, often cited by ad- 
vocates of our doctrine, occurs in the book of 
Jonah (iv. 10, 11), where God, ansvi^ering with 
rebuke the unmerciful complaint of the disap- 
pointed prophet, says : '' Should I not spare Nine- 
veh, that ■ great city, wherein are more than six 
score thousand persons that cannot discern be- 
tween their right hand and their left?" by which 
is meant infants. What we are particularly to re- 
mark, in these two citations, is the reason which 
God assigns for his tender concern respecting 
"little ones;" their personal innocence, their inca- 



able commentators; but he is aware that others refer 
the ''innocent blood" also to the martyrdom of prophets 
and other just persons. Still, the sacrificed children are 
included, and the inference is strengthened by the babes 
being put in the same category with holy men. 



48 god's care 

pacity of actual moral wrong. Their adult fa- 
thers were guilty on their own account, and He 
might with justice have destroyed them; but the 
little ones, who "could not discern between their 
right hand and their left," the "innocent," were 
regarded by him with affectionate compassion. 

Now, asks an excellent writer, commenting on 
the xixth of Jeremiah : " Can it be supposed that 
He, who undertook, in such tremendous language, 
to avenge their temporal injuries, was at the same 
time intending to destroy them forever ; that He 
left those murdered babes an eternal prey to de- 
vils, in whose obscure and sanguinary orgies their 
innocent blood had been shed ?"^ And again he 
says, on the ivth of Jonah, "Of the six score thou- 
sand Ninevite children, about sixty thousand were 
probably removed from life while they knew not 
their right hand from their left. It seems incredi- 

^ Rev. Dr. Harris' '' Grounds of Hope for the Salva- 
tion of ail Dying in Infancy.' London; 1821. 



OF INNOCENTS. 49 

ble, that at'ter these expressions of regard, such in- 
fants, dying without having forfeited this tender 
concern by personal transgression, should be ex- 
cluded from the presence of God forever." 

Some may think that the force of these passages 
is neutrahzed by others, where God commanded 
little ones to be slain with their idolatrous parents, 
as in the case of the Midianites (Numbers xxxi. 
17); but we have nowhere denied (what, indeed, 
every hour's observation should convince us of), 
that children may be involved by the temporal 
consequences of their parent's crimes, as those of 
Nineveh would have been if the repentance of the 
city had not turned away the divine vengeance, 
and as the little ones of idolatrous Israel were 
when sacrificed unto Baal. God in ancient times, 
as now, punished national sins with national cala- 
mities; and, when his decree went forth to destroy 
a nation by the sword, the children were not 
spared any more than they are from a pestilence 
or earthquake. Besides, his providence towards 



60 god's care of innocents, 

Israel was peculiar. His design was, for wise 
reasons, to keep them in the land of Canaan as a 
separate people, their Abrahamic lineage pure, and 
their divine religion uncorrupt. Therefore, he 
cleared the land of those idolatrous nations which 
had possessed it, and provoked him to anger. 
Had any number, particularly of the males, been 
permitted to survive, there must have been con- 
stant insurrections, a depravation of their blood, 
and a tendency to idolatry. Severe as the mea- 
sure was, and far from justifying imitation by 
men, it was as necessary to the conservation of 
Israel, as it was deserved by the Canaanite tribes. 
It is, however, by no means a proof that God pur- 
sued the little ones of his enemies with vengeance 
in another world. They passed from under the 
sword of Moses, punishing their nation for the ca- 
pital crime of idolatry, before that judgment seat 
where every soul is tried by its own acts. If our 
doctrine be true, we see the light of saving mercy 
shed over the darkest and bloodiest pages of tem- 
poral providence. 



EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED, 



THE ARGUMENT. 



CHAPTER IV. 

V. The favour of God in Christ to little Children, as 
shown under the New Testament. 

With the fulness of time, the light of hope for 
the dying infant, which before was glimmering, 
became clear and bright. 

V. Among the characteristics of Christianity, 
not the least remarkable and beautiful, is its tender 
favour towards little children. 

The great Forerunner of our Lord came not in 
the strength of a full-grown man. The first inti- 
mation, that the kingdom of God was nigh at 
hand, was given in the promise of a little child : 
"Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard; 



52 THE INFANT FORERUNNER 

and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and 
thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt 
have joy and gladness, and nnany shall rejoice at 
his hirth. And he shall be great in the sight of 
the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong 
drink ; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost^ 
even from his mother'^ s icomV^ (Luke i. 13, 14, 
15). So, when the promise was fulfilled, and the 
happy father held his son in his arms, he prophe- 
sied over him with gladness, and said, " Thou, 
child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest !" 
(Luke i. 67—80.) The Harbinger of the Gospel 
was a sanctified little child* 

Then, when to the humble shepherds in the 
fields, keeping watch over their flock by night, the 
angel of the Lord came, and the glory of the Lord 
shone round about them, what was his announce- 
ment of good tidings of great joy, which should be 
to all people? ^' Unto you is horn this day, in the 
city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the 
Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you, Ye 



OF THE INFANT SAVIOUR. 53 

shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, 
lying in a naanger" (Luke ii. 8, 12). They ran 
with haste imto Bethlehem, and there they found 
the blessed Virgin Mother gazing upon her myste- 
rious CHILD, already named by the Holy Ghost, 
Jesus, the Saviour; Emmanuel, God with us. 

Wise men from the east, moved by traditions of 
ancient prophecy, the appearance of the star of 
which Balaam had spoken (Num. xxiv. 17), and, 
doubtless, by inspiration from on high, came with 
princely gifts to worship Him that was horn King 
of the Jews; and "Lo! the star, which they had 
seen in the east, went before them till it came and 
stood near where the young child lay; and 
when they saw the star they rejoiced with exceed- 
ing great joy. And when they were come into 
the house, they saw the young child, with Ma- 
ry, his mother, and fell down and worshipped 
Him (Matt. ii. 1—11). 

Can any one read these passages, without per- 
ceiving that our divine Lord was a Saviour worthy 
E 2 



54 THE INFANT SAVIOUR 

of all adoration and trust from his very birtli? It 
was, indeed, necessary for Him to be born of a 
woman, that he might be truly man; and, having 
been born, to pass through the years which inter- 
vene before the full age, when, agreeably to Jew- 
ish rule, he might assume his ofhce publicly. We 
see, also, in his feeble beginning, a parable of his 
cause, which, though apparently weak and of little 
worldly account at first, is destined to attain the 
highest glory. These, however, were not all the 
reasons why he came as a little child, yet a Sa- 
viour; passed through all the weaknesses, sorrows, 
and trials of infancy, being tried in all points 
as little ones are ; and rewarded the care of his 
pious mother with child-like, affectionate obser- 
vance. It was to teach us that he is the Saviour 
of little children, who bear his likeness more 
closely than the best disciple of mature years ever 
can, as well as of the adults who believe in his 
name. It was to claim the whole world of infancy 
as his own, however men might reject his grace. 



OF INFANTS. 55 

It was to assure the anxious mother bending over 
his image in her child, that 

*' She may trust her sweet babe through the hour of 

danger, 
To the mercy of Him, who was laid in a manger." 

Nor did the " holy child jesus" wait long for an 
opportunity of saving his little fellows. The cruel 
Herod, fearful of losing his throne because the 
true King of the Jews was born, " sent forth and 
slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and 
in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and 
under" (Matt. ii. 16); and, though the one he sought 
was carried beyond his malice, hundreds (or as 
some think, thousands) of babes and sucklings 
yielded their young lives to a persecution of the 
infant Saviour. On earth, "in Rama was there a 
voice heard, lamentation and weeping, and a great 
mourning; Rachel weeping for her children and 
refusing to be comforted, because they were not" 
(Luke ii. 18); but in heaven there was great joy, 



56 THE INFANTRY OF 

as the happy angels bore on rejoicing wings to 
their Father's house the young redeemed, a nume- 
rous proof that Jesus had entered his kingdom and 
claimed little children for his own. The rage of 
Herod against the infant King, but sent the little 
ones to shout, among the blessed, His praises, 

" Who brought them there, 
Without a wish, without a care." 

Dear Matthew Henry, here sweetly though 
quaintly says: "A passive testimony was given 
hereby to the Lord Jesus, as when he was in the 
womb he was witnessed to by a little child leaping 
in the womb for joy at his approach; so now, at 
two years old, he had cotemporary witnesses to 
him of the same age. They shed their blood for 
him, who afterwards shed his blood for them. 
These were the infantry of the noble army of 
martyrs. If these infants were thus baptized 
with blood, though it were their own, into the 
church triumphant, it could not be said but that. 



THE ARMY OF MARTYRS. 57 

with what they got in heaven, they were abun- 
dantly recompensed for all they lost on earth. 
' Out of the mouth of these babes and sucklings 
God did perfect praise, otherwise it is not good to 
the Almighty that he should thus afflict.' " Good 
Jeremy Taylor speaks to the same import : " Je- 
sus, when Himself was safe, might have secured 
these poor babes of Bethlehem, with thousands of 
diversions or avocations of Herod's purposes, or 
by discovering in some safe manner, not unknown 
to the divine wisdom, his own escape; but it did 
not so please God. He is Lord of his own crea- 
tures, and hath an absolute dominion over our 
lives, and he had an end to serve upon these 
babes, and an end of justice upon Herod; and to 
the children he made such compensation, that they 
had no reason to complain that they were so soon 
made stars, when they shone in their little orbs 
and participations of eternity ; for so the sense of 
the church has been, that they having died the 
death of martyrs, though incapable of making the 



58 JESUS BLESSING 

choice, God supplied the defects of their will by 
his own entertainment of the thing. "^ 

These auguries and promises of favour to little 
children, in our blessed Lord's birth and nursing 
age, are most sweetly and richly confirmed by 
many passages and occasions of his riper minis- 
try. Our beloved Master took peculiar pleasure 
in manifesting his tender love for little ones, and 
showed peculiar displeasure at those who doubted 
his willingness to receive them. 

There are two remarkable instances of this pre- 
served by the Evangelists; the one by Matthew 
xviii. 1 — 14, by Mark ix. 35—37, by Luke ix. 46 
— 48; the other by Matthew xix. 13, 14, by Mark 
X. 14, and by Luke xviii. 15 — 17. We shall exa- 
mine this last first, as the former presents us with 
additional matter for consideration. 

Matt. xix. 13, 14. "Then were brought unto 

* ^' They were too young to fight, but not too young 
to be crowned with victory." — Cyprian. 



LITTLE CHILDREN. 59 

him little children, that he should put his hands on 
them and pray (that he should touch them, Mark 
and Luke). And the disciples rebuked them 
(those that brought them, Mark), and when Jesus 
saw it, he was much displeased. But Jesus said, 
Suffer (the) little children (to come unto me, Mark 
and Luke) and forbid them not to come unto me, 
for of such is the kingdom of heaven (God, Mark, 
and Luke). (Verily, I say unto you, whosoever 
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little 
child, he shall not enter therein, Mark). And he 
laid his hands on them (and he took them up in 
his arms, put his hands upon them, Mark) and 
blessed them." 

Who they were, that brought these little ones to 
Jesus, we are not told; most likely it was their pa- 
rents, perhaps, some benevolent lovers of children, 
who had faith in his blessing, yes, even in his 
touch. They were very little children, for Luke 
uses the same word, which is applied to the Babe 
in the manger. " Christ," says Matthew Henry in 



60 OF SUCH IS 

his Sermon on Mark x. 16, "came to teach, to 
heal, and to bless. These little children were not 
brought to Him to be taught, for they were too 
young ; nor to be healed, for we are not told that 
they were sick; but to be blessed, as his laying 
on them his hands signified." Now mark not only 
the tenderness of Jesus, but the reason he assigns 
for it. He takes them up in his arms; he lays 
their little heads in his holy bosom; he blesses 
Ihem with divine authority. He does so the more 
emphatically, to rebuke those who would have 
kept them from him. The Master Himself, the 
Head of the church, the perfect Example of the 
church, clasps little children gladly to his heart. 
For what reason? Because of a tenderness, natu- 
ral in so loving a spirit as his, toward helpless, 
smiling babes ? That might well be. Or, that He 
might recommend little children to the care of his 
disciples? This was certainly true. But the main 
reason he gives himself: "Of such is the kingdom 
of God." What can this mean, for our Lord was 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 61 

not wonl to speak ambiguously when instructing 
his disciples, but that which the words express 
plainly. "Of such is the kingdom of God;" or, lit- 
tle children, as such, belong to God's kingdom by 
his gracious determination. If they should grow 
to years of personal responsibility, their circum- 
stances would be different, and personal faith 
would be necessary for their salvation; because, 
then they would be no longer, except they were 
regenerate, such as his kingdom is made up of. 
But, if such as were of his kingdom died before 
they sinned by rejecting his grace, could they be 
rejected by Him, and sent away to the kingdom of 
Satan? 

We are not to be turned from this ground, by 
the question, how can they, who are once of the 
kingdom of heaven, in after years lose their part 
of it? We take the words of our Lord as we find 
them, nor shall any theological dilemma stumble 
us into unbelief of them. God can reconcile diffi- 
culties which we cannot. 



62 OF SUCH IS 

We, however, can see no difficulty here. The Mas- 
ter does not speak of any particular child or child ren, 
but of the character and state in which all infants 
are. While they remain in that state and retain 
that character, they are of the kingdom of God ; 
when they pass from the one or lose the other, they 
are beyond the condition which is covered by the 
mercy of Christ. If any of those little ones live 
to bring condemnation on their souls by obstinate 
impenitence, it is clear that they never belonged 
to the elect of grace ; but, if any die before such 
personal sin, it is equally clear that they are safe, 
because our Lord says, " Of such is the kingdom of 
God." He is speaking of them in the circum- 
stances of little children, not as possible adults; 
just as God, under the Old Testament, promised 
blessing to the children of circumcision, thousands 
of whom, in riper years, lost the advantage of the 
covenant ; though we doubt not that every one of 
them dying as infants were admitted to glory. 
When God determines the salvation of a soul, he 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 63 

also determines the means of its preparation for 
heaven; and we know nothing of his particular 
purposes but by their results in personal charac- 
ter. The dying infant has the character to which 
heaven is promised. 

It may be said in reply, that the Saviour is 
speaking of the character, which his disciples 
should cultivate, if they would enter the kingdom 
of heaven ; not of the little children themselves. 
We admit the first; we deny the second. Lit- 
tle children are set before us as types, exam- 
ples of that temper to which only the kingdom of 
God is promised; but what right has any one to 
say, that the Master did not mean the little chil- 
dren themselves, when he directly points to them ? 
Besides, if it be true that all, who become as little 
children, are saved, is not the inference irresistible, 
that those, whom they become like, are saved also, 
when they go as little children before God? Why 
this pervicacious logic to shut out from heaven 
those, who die in the very arms of Christ? We 



64 FORBID THEM NOT. 

should tremble to adopt it, lest we come under the 
rebuke of those, who would have Ibrbidden His 
little ones to come unto him. We can understand 
caution in so rendering Scriptures, that we give 
no encouragement to those who wilfully are im- 
penitent; but what mischief can result from a be- 
lief, that He, who when on earth blessed little chil- 
dren, blesses them eternally when as little children 
they go to him in heaven? Let us rather, my 
reader, rejoice in a faith which gives to the Al- 
mighty, just and most merciful Saviour, the glory 
of so vast a salvation. 

The other passage of which we spoke, occurs 
in Matthew xviiith, from the first to the end of the 
fourteenth verse: "At the same time came the 
disciples of Jesus unto him, saying, who is the 
greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus 
called a little child unto him, and set him in the 
midst of them; and said, Verily, I say unto you. 
Except ye be converted and become as little chil- 
dren, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of 



OFFEND THEM NOT. 65 

heaven. Whosoever, therefore, shall humble him- 
self as this little child, the same is greatest in the 
kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive 
one such little child in my name, receiveth me. 
But, whoso shall offend one of these little ones, 
which believe in me, it were better that a millstone 
were hanged about his neck, and that he were 

drowned in the depths of the sea Take 

heed that ye despise not one of these little ones, 
for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do 
alway behold the face of my Father, which is in 
heaven. For the Son of Man came to seek and 
to save that which was lost. How think ye. If a 
man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be 
gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and 
nine and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh 
that which is sjone astrav. And if so be that he 
find it, verily I say unto you. He rejoiceth more 
of that sheep than of the ninety and nine that 
went not astray. Even so it is not the will of 
your Father which is in heaven, that one of these 
f2 



66 CHILDHOOD, THE EMBLEM 

little ones should perish" (Compare Mark ix. 33 
to the end, and Luke ix. 46 — 48). 

Our Lord here answers the question of the 
Twelve, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of 
heaven? by showing them the character of a 
true Christian disciple, and the great regard he 
has for all those who bear such a character. To 
do this, he takes for his text a little child; not any 
particular child, but the one upon whom his eye 
chanced to fall. He " calls" the little one to him; 
from which and the term in the original, we may 
suppose that it was a "child" able to walk, though 
"little." He sets him in the midst of the lis- 
tening circle, and says : " Verily I say unto you, 
Except ye be converted and become as little chil- 
dren, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of hea- 
ven. Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself 
as this little child, the same is greatest in the king- 
dom of heaven." Childhood is the emblem of 
Christianity. Childlikeness is Christian charac- 
ter; and he, who is most like a little child, is 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 67 

greatest in His kingdom, the most advanced and 

honoured disciple, because his "conversion" (8 v.) 
from a contrary spirit is the most thorough. 

Having stated the character which He most ap- 
proves, he goes on to show his extreme regard for 
all who possess it : " Whoso shall receive one such 
little child in my name receiveth me." This verse 
applies equally to little children and childlike 
disciples. In the next He speaks of faith, which 
shows that he is now referring more particularly 
to the true disciple : " Whosoever shall offend one 
of these little ones, which believe in me, it were 
better that a millstone were hanged about his 
neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of 
the sea." Yet his regard for those, to whom he 
compares the docile, teachable, meek-minded be- 
liever, cannot be less than for the believer himself. 
He takes the believer's part, because the believer 
is like a little child. He gives several arguments, 
why all such little children and childlike believers 



68 WHY LITTLE CHILDREN 

should receive from us this kind and considerate 
treatment. 

(1.) They are identified with Himself. "Who- 
so receiveth one such little child in my name, re- 
ceiveth me." They are united to him ; he sympa- 
thizes with them ; they are his own. 

(2.) They are under the care of his angels. 
" Take heed, how ye despise one of these little 
ones; for in heaven their angels do always behold 
the face of my Father, which is in heaven." Christ 
is the Lord of angels, Jehovah of Hosts ; and he 
brings all his glorious retinue to serve him in his 
office of Saviour ; as the author of the Epistle to 
the Hebrews says of the angels : "Are they not all 
ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them, 
who shall be heirs of salvation?" (Heb. i. 14.) In 
the Old Testament, angels were declared to be 
guardians of God's people (Ps. xci. 11, 12). Here 
our blessed Master confirms the truth. His angels 
are his people's angels, standing ready before God 
to be sent upon any mission that concerns the 



ARE DEAR TO CHRIST. 69 

welfare of his little ones: little children and child- 
like believers. Some find here the doctrine of 
particular guardian angel; whether that be true 
or not we are unprepared to say; but, certainly, 
all Christ's people are under the guardianship of 
Christ's angels. There is not one of all the ra- 
diant, winged spirits who do God's will in provi- 
dence, that is not ready to be a servant of those 
whom Jesus numbers among his little ones. 

(3.) They are peculiarly dear to Him, as Sa- 
viour of the lost (11—13); which he illustrates by 
an instance of a good shepherd seeking after a 
lost one from his flock, and bringing it back with 
joy. So does he love his "little ones" for the 
very pains it cost him to win them from ruin; 
and they are recommended to our love by the 
greatness of his love towards them and us. 

(4.) The gracious will of our heavenly Father 
concerning them (14 verse): "Even so it is not 
the will of your Father, which is in heaven, that 
one of these little ones should perish." The hea- 



70 THE HEAVENLY FATHER's WILL 

venly Father delights in the salvation of his little 
ones; and, therefore, they should be precious in 
our sight. Their Father is our Father; and He, 
who is willing to save us, is willing to save them. 
That childlike believers are included by the term 
little ones, may be cheerfully admitted; but the 
reference is most direct to little children ; for it is 
not such little ones, but these little ones. The 
Master is not speaking of the Twelve, but to them. 
He is answering their question; and they are en- 
couraged to trust in their heavenly Father's care, 
only so far as they were converted to be like little 
children. If it be our heavenly Father's will, that 
none who are like little children should perish; 
how can it be, that little children, who are set be- 
fore them as emblems of simplicity and innocence, 
patterns for imitation, standards of character, 
should perish? It is difficult to understand, how 
any sincere reader can hesitate about such a plain 
inference. The words of our Lord do not render 
their salvation certain, if they should come to 



THAT NO LITTLE ONE SHOULD PERISH. 71 

years of intelligence. He is speaking of little chil- 
dren in age, and of those like little children in 
character. If the former should pass beyond the 
condition of Httle children, without possessing a 
childlike character, they would then be beyond the 
ground covered by this gracious text ; but, if they 
died as little children, in either sense, it is not the 
will of our heavenly Father that they should pe- 
rish. They are within the promise and safe. 
Those, whom the ever merciful Jesus unites with 
Himself; whom he commends in his name to the 
tenderness of his people; whom he commits to the 
guardianship of holy angels ; and of whom it is 
the will of His Father, our Father and their Fa- 
ther, that not one should perish ; must, dying in a 
state so fenced in, and made holy by his Saviour- 
sympathy, go to be among the blessed in that 
heaven, to the kingdom of which he has declared 
they belong, even while on earth. 

These inferences are confirmed by our blessed 
Lord's rebuke to the chief priests and scribes, 



72 PRAISE PERFECTED 

when they were sore displeased at the hosannas 
of the children in the temple (Matt. xxi. 15, 16): 
" Jesus said unto them, Yea, have ye never read : 
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, thou hast 
perfected praise]" This Scripture is taken from 
the second verse of the eighth Psalm, where we 
read : " Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, 
hast thou ordained strength, because of thine ene- 
mies ; that thou mightest still the enemy and the 
avenger." Whatever other meaning or reference 
these words of prophecy may have, the use which 
our Master makes of them, demonstrates an inten- 
tion on the part of God, to derive even from babes 
and sucklings, a praise magnifying his grace by 
Jesus Christ, over ail the power and arts and ca- 
vils of his and our enemies. Out of the mouth 
of such little ones he can ordain strength ; his gra- 
cious influences can reach their young hearts, and 
throughout eternity, their hosannas, which were 
so welcome to Him in the temple on earth, shall 
swell his triumphs in the temple above. Neither 



OUT OF THE MOL'TH OF BABES. 73 

the little one, nor the suckling babe, shall be left 
in the power of the enemy. The strength of 
Him, who came as a "tender plant" (Is. liii. 2), 
(or, as the Septuagint translates, a tender or suck- 
ing child,*) will redeem out of the power of the 
avenger, the world of infancy; their souls shall 
be His trophies of victory, and their immortal 
hosannas celebrate his complete conquest over 
him that had the power of death (Heb. ii. 14). 

No, thou gentle, compassionate Saviour, v/ho 
wert once the Babe of Bethlehem, and now upon 
thy throne, art worshipped as the Holy Child Jesus 
(Acts iv. 27), it is not thy will that any little one 
shall perish! The arms which were open to them 
on earth, will receive them in heaven. They 
shall lie there in that holy bosom, to which they 
were clasped here. Death is thy ministering an- 
gel, to bear them up to thee. Sweet, excelling 
heaven's ordinary praise, to thy ear must be the 

See Joseph Mede's Sermon on Psalm viii. 2. 
G 



74 THE LAMBS IN THE FOLD. 

voices of their countless multitudes, as they bless 
thee in the song of the redeemed, thee once a 
Babe like them, and now their Elder Brother ! 

Dry your tears, bereaved parents, or turn them 
into floods of joy. The Voice that called them 
away, was his who said: They belong to my 
kingdom. The hand that took them from you, 
was His, who once laid his benediction on the in- 
fant's head. He has set them in the midst of his 
admiring disciples above. They are now the dar- 
ling little ones of their heavenly Father's house. 
The angels, who watched over their cradle beds, 
are now rejoicing over their immortal beauty, as 
lambs safely folded where the spoiler can never 
come. Heed them not, who would bid you doubt ; 
point them to the recorded censure of the Master, 
displeased at so unmerciful an unbelief. "Of such 
is the kingdom of heaven." " Out of the mouth 
of" your "babe," Christ's "praise" is "perfect- 
ed" in the temple on high! 



EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 



THE ARGUMENT. 

CHAPTER V. 

VI. The multitude of the Redeemed out of all nations, 
includes all Infants. Vindication of Providence. The 
glory of Christ in his little ones. 

VI. The multitude of the redeemed. 

" I beheld," says the apostle in the Revelation 
(vii. 9, 10), "and lo, a great multitude, whom no 
man could number, of all nations and kindreds, 
and people, and tongues, stood before the throne 
and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, 
and palms in their hands, and cried with a loud 
voice, saying : Salvation to our God, which sitteth 
upon the throne, and to the Lamb!" 

Such a promise of so glorious a consummation 
is an unspeakable relief, and a most welcome re- 
buke to our hearts, over which melancholy doubts 



76 PROGRESS OF TRUTH SLOW, 

will come, as we think of man's vast family, and 
of the small number comparatively, who have 
given open proof of being reconciled to God, by 
the infinitely meritorious death of his Son. How 
few even of the called are chosen ! and, though, 
doubtless, God has children unknown to the world, 
how many of those who profess his name, walk 
unworthily of their high vocation ! How large a 
portion of mankind the Gospel has never reached ! 
It shall yet prevail, we are assured by the word 
which cannot lie, over the whole earth, from the 
rising even to the setting of the sun; but how 
many nations, and tribes, and tongues, rose and 
passed away under heathen darkness, before the 
advent of Jesus! Since then, how. many lands, 
islands and continents, teeming with population, 
have remained ignorant of God and imbruted by 
idolatry ! How slow the progress of truth, while 
every moment thousands are dying into eternity, 
without the revelation of hope! 

Has Christ, then, we painfully inquire, Christ, 
who was sent out of Divine love to " the world" 



YET GRACE ABOUNDS. 77 

(John iii. 16); Christ, who made a propitiation for 
the sins, not of one nation, but of " the whole 
world;" Christ, to whose redemption is promised 
a gracious success, "much more abounding" over 
the apostacy (Rom. v. 20, 21); has he no trophies 
of his saving power, from those long, dark centu- 
ries, and the vast regions which have lain or still 
lie under the shadow of death ? 

The holy words of the beloved apostle, assures 
us that He has; and that there is not, has not 
been, never shall be, a nation, or kindred, or peo- 
ple, or tongue, which will not be found to have 
swelled that great multitude, which no man can 
number, who shall stand, sinless and victorious, 
before the throne, ascribing salvation to God, who 
sitteth thereon, and to the Lamb. Yet the Scrip- 
tures positively assert, that there is no salvation 
but in Christ, nor any other name under heaven 
given among men, whereby they can be saved 
(Acts iv. 12); that they who are "without Christ," 
" having no hope," are "without God" (Ephes. ii, 
G 2 



78 THE HEATHEN WITHOUT GOD, 

12), " having the understanding darkened, being 
alienated from the life of God, through the igno- 
rance that is in them" (Ephes. iv. 18); and that 
"the wicked shall be cast into hell, with all the 
nations (or heathen) which forget God" (Ps. ix. 
17). These and other passages put it beyond 
question, that the heathen are not absolved from 
their moral accountability for their actual sins, 
nor are received into grace through Christ ; 
though, doubtless, God in his judgment will mer- 
cifully consider their ignorance; and their never 
having rejected the Saviour, renders them far less 
guilty than the impenitent of Christian lands. 
The apostle Peter, indeed, at the conversion of 
Cornelius, says, that " Of a truth God is no re- 
specter of persons, but in every nation, he that 
feareth God and worketh righteousness, is accept- 
ed of him" (Acts x. 34, S^); nor should we dare 
deny to the sovereignty of God, the power of in- 
spiring some among heathen nations with a long- 
ing after truth and duty, to which He will have a 



THEIR LITTLE ONES SAFE IN DEATH. 79 

gracious regard ; but, from what we know of the 
heathen, such instances must be rare; and the 
words of Peter, it must be recollected, were spoken 
in reference to one, who, living among many Jews, 
had a knowledge of the true God, whom he served 
as far as he had light. 

It is difficult, therefore, to account for the mul- 
titude of the redeemed out of all nations, except 
by believing that all among the heathen, who die 
before they have reached the age of accountability, 
are saved by the grace of Him, who has claimed 
early childhood as a part of his kingdom ; a part, 
as John Newton says, so greatly " exceeding the 
aggregate of adult believers, that comparatively 
speaking, his kingdom may be said to consist of 
little children."* They are born without their 

* The whole passage, from which the above quotation 
is made, bears so closely upon our argument, that we 
subjoin it. 

^' I think it at least highly probable, that when our 
Lord says, ' Suffer little children to come unto me, and 



80 JOHN Newton's 

knowledge of heathen parents, but by no inteUi- 
gent act have they consented to idolatry, or sin of 
^ny kind ; for what shall they be condemned by 

forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven,' 
he does not only intimate the necessity of our becoming 
like little children in simplicity, as a qualification with- 
out which (as he expressly declares in other places) we 
cannot enter into his kingdom ; but informs us of a fact, 
that the number of infants who are effectually redeemed 
unto God by his blood, so greatly exceeds the aggregate 
of adult believers, that, comparatively speaking, his 
kingdom may be said to consist of little children. The 
apostle speaks of them as not having sinned after the 
similitude of Adam's transgression (Rom. v. 14) ; that 
is, with the consent of their understanding and will. 
And when he says, ^ We must all appear before the 
judgment seat of Christ,' he adds, ^ that every man may 
give an account of v/hat he hath done in the body, 
whether it be good or bad' (2 Cor. v. 10). But children, 
who die in their infancy, have not done any thing in 
the body, either good or bad. It is true, they are by 
nature evil, and must, if saved, be the subjects of a su- 
pernatural change. And though we cannot conceive 



OPINION. 81 

Him, who, while he will by no means clear the 
guilty, so " delighteth in mercy," that he was born 
of a woman to die upon the cross, the Saviour of 
Man? 

how this change is to be wrought, yet I suppose few are 
so rash as to suppose it impossible that any infants can 
be saved. The same Power that produces this change 
in some can produce it in all ; and, therefore, I am will- 
ing to believe, till the Scripture forbids me, that infants 
of all nations and kindreds, without exception, w^ho die 
before they are capable of sinning after the similitude of 
Adam's transgression, who have done nothing in the 
body, of which they can give an account, are included 
in the election of grace. They are born for a better 
world than this ; they just enter this state of tribulation ; 
they quickly pass through it ; ' their robes are washed 
white in the blood of the Lamb ;' and they are admitted 
for his sake before the throne. Should I be asked to 
draw the line, to assign the age at which children begin 
to be accountable for actual sin, it would give me no 
pain to confess my ignorance. ^ The Lord knoweth.' " 
(Works of Rev. John jYewton. Am. Ed. Vol. IV. pp. 552, 
553. Serm. 48.) 



82 THE GLORY OF CHRIST 

With what glory does this faith of ours invest 
the adorable Redeemer, upon whose word we 
trust, and whom we hope to worship with sinless 
praises among the shining host forever! Scarcely 
can we see that his victory over the last enemy 
complete, if death be permitted to hold the sweetest, 
fairest, least stained, and largest portion of our 
sin-stricken race, in his gloomy prison-house ; and 
the harvest of salvation will be scanty, compared 
to the destroying angel's, if the young blossoms of 
humanity, cut down by his hasty sickle, may never 
rise again to praise their Creator's skill in the gar- 
den of the Lord. The "mighty Reaper" has not 
gathered the thick harvest for his own garner. He 
goes forth in all ages, through all lands, among all 
nations and kindreds, rescuing from sin, and crime, 
and sorrow, and eternal doom, the infant images 
of Christ and Christianity. He bears them far 
away, to be crowned with Ufe and immortality, 
where they shall be safe in their Father's house, 
and on their Saviour's bosom. He anticipates 



IX HIS LITTLE ONES. 83 

their sad repentance for actual sins; their possi- 
ble rejection of grace; the severe discipline ne- 
cessary to educate and purify the adult transgres- 
sor for the company of angels. Not one of all 
the angels, who do ever behold the face of our 
Father which is in heaven, serves more effectually 
the Redeeming Jehovah of Hosts ; for, through 
death, Christ abolishes the power of death over the 
kingdom of infancy, transforms it into the great- 
est and most beautiful portion of his heavenly 
kingdom, and, gathering the lambs in his arms, 
fills the fold above with their happy myriads. 

The most mysterious passages in the providence 
of God toward man are thus richly illuminated. 
From the submerging waters of the old world ; the 
fires of Sodom and Gomorrah ; the houses of Egypt 
wailing for their first-born ; the battle fields of Ca- 
naan; the burning arms of Moloch; the waves of 
Asiatic rivers; the groves of the Druids; the mur- 
derous grasp of parents steeled against their hated 
ofTspring; the crowded pits, which serve for graves 



84 LIFE ABOUNDING OVER DEATH. 

to outcast foundlings;* from the breadth of every 
continent, the shores of every island, where cruel 
heathenism has reigned, still reigns, or may yet 
reign, as well as from the consecrated chambers 
of Christian bereavement ; Christ has called his lit- 
tle ones, and, by his own strong and gentle arm, 
caught them to his bosom. There has never been 
a moment, since the earth was peopled by its mul- 
tiplying tribes, that the angels have not been busy 
in the holy delight of carrying up to God multi- 
tudes of babes and sucklings, to perfect his praise 
and chaunt hosannas within the upper temple, vic- 
torious through atoning, sanctifying grace, over 
the enemy and avenger. 

With what satisfaction will the Elder Brother of 
man look from his high throne, the reward of his 
mediatorial humiliations, upon the purchase of his 
sufferings ; and see, mingled with the sealed host of 
glorified believers, and with cherubim and sera- 

^ See the next chapter. 



LITTLE ONES IN HEAVEN. 85 

phim, the great multitude, whom no man can 
number, of infant souls, whose lessons of holy 
worship shall have been taught them in heaven, be- 
fore they have learned a single sin on earth. The 
mailyrs, and those that reach the skies through 
great tribulation, stand nearest the throne, be- 
cause the fires which purified them for bliss 
were hotter than those of less favoured Chris- 
tians ; but, surely, they, who stand next to them, 
must be the far more numerous army of little 
ones, whose spirits, stained by no actual sin, 
needed no such furnace of refining flame. Heaven 
has many joys, joys which no man has seen or 
could express, and all its joys must be from behold- 
ing the glory of the Lamb as it sheds blessing, 
and beauty, and truth, over all ; but it were worth 
centuries of Christian service and trial here to 
reach, at last, the threshold of our Father's house, 
and look upon the happy family of his little children, 
growing in wisdom, and strength, and praise, un- 
der his delighted eye and perfect teaching ! 

H 



EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 



THE ARGUMENT. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Gospel the only scheme of pity for little Children. 
Cruelty of Heathenism. Infanticide. Classic philo- 
sophy. Sacramental Regeneration. Salvation by 
works. The Infant saved by Christ alone. 

A MOST ungrateful wrong would be done to the 
glorious plan of salvation by free grace through 
Jesus Christ, if we did not remark how rich, be- 
yond all comparison, are the comforts which it 
affords in the death of httle ones. No other 
scheme offers us any reasonable hope. 

Heathenism, cruel to all, is especially cruel to- 
ward infants. The apostle (Rom. i. 31), charac- 
terizes the nations who have departed from the 
true God, as '' without natural affection ;" and in 



INFANTS SACRIFICED. 87 

nothing is this more clearly seen, than their unna- 
tural treatment of their helpless oifspring. The 
Old Testament Scriptures often allude to the cus- 
tom of sacrificing young children, prevalent among 
the eastern idolaters. Heathenism, like all super- 
stitions, is a spirit of fear ; and the parent offered 
the life of his child, as the most acceptable proof 
he could give of devotion to the demon he wor- 
shipped. Thus the prophet Micah makes Balaam 
say to Balak ; " Shall I give my first-born for my 
transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of 
my soul 1" (Micah vi. 7.) Nor was it confined to 
the Syrian abominations, but can be traced as ac- 
companying idolatry, more or less, every where ; 
in Africa, Asia, and Europe to the farthest north, 
throughout Polynesia, and among different races 
on the American continent. 

Infanticide was, and is, yet more prevalent. 
Even among the most polished nations of anti- 
quity, the exposure of new-born infants, for va- 
rious reasons, was so common, that an historian 



88 INFANTICIDE, A HEATHEN POLICY. 

of the second century after Christ (iElian^^) praises 
the Thebans as singular in having a law against 
it. The rules of several States sternly insisted 
upon the destruction of such babes as did not pro- 
mise, from their physical structure, good service 
to a warlike people. Philosophers in high repute 
to this day, as masters of various science, embo- 
died the horrid expedient with their pohtical theo- 
ries, and advocated the murder of unborn infants 
as a check upon population. f The massacre of 
the new-born male Israelites by their Egyptian 
masters, was in perfect accordance with national 
policy at the time, revolting as it appears to us. 
Some of the Pacific Islands were nearly depopu- 
lated by such inhuman practices, before the arrival 
of Christian teachers among them. Throughout 
India, where superstition makes the slaughter of a 

* Various Histories, ii. 7. 

t Plato, Republic, v. 6. Aristotle, Politics, vii. 15, 16. 
Pliny, Natural History, xxxix. 27. 



NO LIGHT FROM PHILOSOPHY. 89 

brute impiety, human offspring are doomed with- 
out pity ; and the Hindoo woman counts it mercy 
to save, by immediate assassination, her female 
child from her mother's miserj^ The Chinese, 
wonderful as their civilization is in many respects, 
scruple not at a wholesale destruction of children 
they deem superfluous; the crime is never pun- 
ished ; the government connive at it, and the po- 
lice in some cities assist in it. Mohammed con- 
demned it as existing among the more ancient 
Arabs; but the sun-brightened waters of the Bos- 
phorus, and the fruitful Nile, engulf very many 
victims, whom no law defends from parental cru- 
elty. 

No classic philosophy could discover blessing 
for infants after death ; nor was it consistent with 
any, even the best, of their theories. If, indeed, 
the spirit of the babe survived, there was no alter- 
native to the belief, that its immortality would be 
the same state of undeveloped faculties in which it 
left the world. Hence they say nothing of the in- 
H 2 



90 ETERNAL GLOOM. 

fant's future being beyond this life ;'^ or suppose 
it to be a scarcely conscious existence among the 
sombre shadows of an eternal twilight.f 

* In the apologue of Alcinous, the most remarkable 
passage in classic writings respecting futurity, Plato 
says, that what Eros told of infants is not worth relating. 
Plato, Republic, x. 

t The popular sentiment was not more cheering. We 
have many epitaphs and sad elegies on the death of chil- 
dren, showing the deep sorrow of bereaved parents; 
but none in the classic anthologies breathe " a lively 
hope." One of the most touching (from the Greek of 
Leonidas of Tarentum) is subjoined; and how exqui- 
sitely mournful is the desire of the broken-hearted mo- 
ther, for whom life has no remaining charm, to join her 
child in ^^ eternal night !" 

Unhappy child ! Unhappy I, whose tears 
Rain on the urn that hides thy blighted years ! 
Thou'rt early gone, Amyntas — I alone. 
Bereft of thee, through life's long pang must groan; 
Disgusted with each morn's returning light. 
Yearning for refuge in eternal night. 
Sweet spirit, guide thy mother where thou art; 
There only can be still my aching heart. 

{By the Author ^ from the Anthology.) 



REVELATION ALONE DEFENDS THE BABE. 91 

Revelation alone defends the life of the little one 
by making it sacred to God ; under the Old Testa- 
ment in the promise of a Messiah, under the New in 
the blessing of Christ ; and the same grace, which 
guards its cradle-helplessness from the unnatural 
hands of enemies here, promises the full redemp- 
tion of its innocent spirit from the malice of its 
great enemy hereafter* Bless God, ye affectionate 
parents, whether your children are in your arms 
or in a Christ-consecrated grave, that we live not 
in the regions of the shadow of death, but under 
the peaceful, holy, hope-giving sunlight of the 
Gospel ; which came in the person of a nursling 
Babe, on the bosom of a humble, pious mother, 
(whom no popish folly shall keep us from calling, 
after angelic example and according to prophetic 
command,) the "blessed" Virgin! 

If we in any degree relax our hold on the doc- 
trine of free grace, we lose the strength of this 
precious comfort. The infant has no promise of 



92 SACRAMENTAL REGENERATION. 

salvation, but through the gracious tenderness of 
Jesus. 

Thus, however edifying the commanded Chris- 
tian rite of baptism is, if we confound it, as many 
have done, with spiritual regeneration, and make 
the outward washing the necessary medium of the 
inward, renewing grace, a babe dying before it 
can ask the holy washing by its own faith, is ren- 
dered dependent for its preparation to enter heaven, 
upon the fidelity of others; and, so, the greater 
part of our mortal race are, by no fault of their 
own, shut out of salvation. For this reason the 
Roman Catholics generally, if not universally, deny 
.heaven to unbaptized infants'^ (except those slain as 
martyrs); and assign to them, on the confines of 
purgatory, a separate limhus, or place of their 
own, scarcely more lightened by divine love than 

* " Infants, unless they be regenerated by God 
through the grace of baptism, are begotten by their pa- 
rents, believers or unbelievers, to everlasting misery 
and perdition." — Council of Trent. 



THE INFANT SAFE ONLY BY FREE GRACE. 93 

that the heathen dreamed of. Hence, also, the 
eagerness of that people to confer baptism upon 
all whom they can by any means reach. But 
theirs is at best, as Bishop Hall says, " The 
hard sentence of a bloody religion;" and part 
of that system, the policy of which is to claim 
the prerogative of dispensing heavenly gifts, to 
make earthly gain of them. It is difficult, nay, 
impossible, for others, who teach the same doctrine 
of sacramental regeneration, to avoid the same dis- 
tressing conclusion;* the supposition of uncove- 
nanted mercy will not avail them, for there is no 
such mercy written of in the Scriptures; and, if it 
be necessary to enter heaven, that we be personally 
and visibly united to an outward church on earth, 
the infant, dying unbaptized, must have some other 
destiny, than eternal life in the presence of God. 
^ A like difficulty clings about the doctrines 

^ It is the doctrine of the Oxford Tracts, that no un- 
baptized person can enter heaven. See Pusey on Bap- 
tism, and Bridges' Sacramental Instruction. 



94 DEPARTED BABES 

of Justification by good works, and of Election 
because of foreseen good works. Such saving 
conditions cannot be predicated of dying little 
ones. They have neither present nor anticipated 
merit of their own. They must be elected if 
saved, and saved if elected, only by free sovereign 
grace. 

Nor (as was said in the beginning of this trea- 
tise) should our hope for them be based upon their 
innocence. The Scriptures warrant no such ex- 
pectation; but, on the contrary, declare the whole 
race of Adam involved by the consequences of his 
fall, and, as a visible proof of this, death has 
passed upon all alike. It is in Christ alone, 
Christ the second Adam, Christ the Almighty Sa- 
viour, Christ the only Mediator between God and 
man, that they can be saved ; but in him there is 
plenteous redemption, and He has claimed them 
for his kingdom; nor shall any be able to pluck 
them out of his hand. 

Blessed be thy name, O Lord Jesus Christ, for 



IN Christ's arms. 95 

our knowledge of thy full salvation, free as it is 
full, which embraces as securely the souls of 
babes and sucklings, as thine arms did embrace 
fondly their little forms, when unbelieving men 
would have kept them from thee! Their Hosan- 
nas were grateful to thine ear, when thy glory 
was hidden from the wise and prudent ; how sur- 
passingly sweet must they be to thee now, as thou 
dost look from thy cross-bought throne upon the 
countless throng in sinless, immortal beauty, for- 
ever safe from sin, and sorrow, and shame, 
through thine abounding love ! 



EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 

THE CONSOLATION. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Affliction from God and comfort only from Him, through 
Jesus Christ, to the penitent. Lessons of affliction 
for the unconverted. Exhortation to repentance and 
faith. 

"Affliction cometh not forth of the dust, nei- 
ther doth trouble spring out of the ground" (Job v. 
6). There is an infinitely wise, omnipotent, ever 
active, ever present Will, ruling over, ordering 
and disposing all. Afflictions, of whatever kind, 
are from God ; they are laid upon us by his hand ; 
so there can be no true comfort under them but 
from God ; for if, " when He giveth quietness, none 
can make trouble," when He maketh trouble, none 
can give quietness. A worldly spirit may be cal- 
lous to trials, which wound sorely better cultivated 



COMFORT ONLY IN CHRIST. 97 

affections ; it may drown grief in silly amusement^ 
selfish pleasure, or absorbing occupation ; it may, 
after some lapse of time, forget; but the true 
heart, whose sensibilities are the more acute as 
they are nicer, that shrinks from the unseemliness 
of hollow mirth, and would not purchase an age 
of stupid ease by one hour of forgetfulness, thirsts 
for comfort which reason will approve, and reli- 
gion alone can afford, a reconcilement of present 
darkness with hope, an assurance that, though we 
see it not, God is working all for good. 

Comfort from God can reach us only through 
Jesus Christ. He is the only Mediator, the only 
channel of communication between God and man. 
We are all sinners. Death has come upon us all 
by sin ; and death, with its painful precedents and 
sad consequents, occasions the greater part of our 
troubles here. There is no healing of our sor- 
rows, but through the cleansing away of our sins. 
So long as we remain unpardoned, unjustified, un- 
reconciled to God, He has "a controversy" with 
I 



98 NO COMFORT 

US. He is our angry Sovereign ; and our suffer- 
ings, whether of body or soul, are proofs of His 
displeasure and of our condemnation, foreshadow- 
in gs of death eternal, more than portents, the be- 
ginning of eternal wo; except we use them as 
warnings to a hearty repentance. But, when, 
through his gracious assistance, we turn from our 
sins unto God, and, by faith in his name, be- 
come united to Christ, God, for Christ's sake, ac- 
cepts us in Him ; we are taken under his paternal 
care, and all our trials are changed into proofs of 
his faithful love, discipHning us for heaven by 
weaning us from earth. God is on our side ; all 
providence is in the hands of Christ; therefore 
nothing can be against us, but all things must 
work together for good to them that love God 
(Rom. viii. 28). 

We have, then, no comfort in the Gospel for 
such afflicted persons as refuse to submit them- 
selves unto God by accepting his grace through 
Christ. There is not a promise apphcable to them 



FOR THE UNBELIEVING. 99 

in all the word of life. We do not say this harsh- 
ly, or without feeling for them in their trouble; 
but in candour and truth. Out of Christ " God is 
a consuming fire ;" and the blessed Saviour him- 
self has said, that " he which believeth not is con- 
demned already, because he hath not believed in 
the name of the only begotten Son of God ;" and 
" he that believeth not the Son shall not see life^ 
but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John iii. 
18, 36). God has demonstrated at once the rich- 
ness of his mercy and the difficulty of its con- 
sistency with his justice, by the provision he has 
made for its exercise in the mediation of Christ ; 
so that, while he freely offers rest and satisfaction 
to those willing to be saved from sin and sor- 
row in the way he has appointed, all who refuse 
his grace are under greater condemnation. Very 
melancholy, then, is their condition, who, notwith- 
standing the warnings of God's affl^ictive hand, re- 
fuse to bow themselves in faith at the cross, and 
thus suffer without the blessing of God in this life, 



100 THE TEACHINGS 

or the hope of comfort in the life to come ! They 
are adding to their sin in breaking the law, and 
their greater sin in denying the Gospel, the yet 
farther obstinacy of hardening their hearts under 
his rebuke and judgments. 

Therefore, we do most earnestly entreat any 
afflicted, yet unbelieving sinner, who may read 
these pages, to seek, without delay, the salva- 
tion and the comfort which is found only in 
Jesus. 

Your sorrow should convince you, that you are 
in the hands of God; and that, however inde- 
pendent you have desired to be of Him, he can 
take away, in a moment, all you hold dear or pre- 
cious. Heavy as your affliction is, it needed but 
a slight stroke of his rod to lay it upon you ; and 
if you suffer now so keenly, how can you expect 
to endure his unrestrained wrath, his punishing 
fires, forever ? The happiness you have lost came 
from Him ; he has taken away what he gave ; and, 
if your thirst be so great at the drying up of a rill 



OF SORROW. 101 

that once flowed down to you from the Fountain 
of Life, of what satisfaction do you deprive your- 
self in refusing the overflowing Spring of all joy ? 
O cease your despair over the dry dust of the 
empty channel ; and let it be a path to lead you 
upward to Him, whose blessing is as full of joy as 
it is of mercy ! 

Your sorrow may also teach you how very un- 
mindful you have been of God ; how very ungrate- 
ful you have been for his care, and how criminally 
idolatrous of his creatures. Before your trouble 
came, you thought little, perhaps not at all,; of His 
goodness, from whom you received the gift whose 
loss you now deplore ; you held it as your own, 
instead of a treasure lent you for God's glory; 
and you enjoyed the pleasure, and cherished high 
hopes of future enjoyment, without any reference 
to his will. Now that the idol has been cast down 
broken to the dust, your heart is empty and deso- 
late; you say in your spirit: " My god is taken 
away, and what have I left!" Ah! dear friend, 
I 2 



102 SORROW SENT 

the emptiness of your desolate heart now, proves 
that it never was the temple of God ; but that you 
have Kved without him. 

Your sorrow, if you will use it aright, is sent to 
you for good. Affliction is one of the means by 
which God prepares our hard hearts for the recep- 
tion of his truth ; as " He maketh the earth soft 
with showers" for the reception and blessing of 
the seed-grain. When God utterly forsakes im- 
penitent sinners, he abandons them to their pride 
and worldly desires, and lets them have a full swing 
of their godless plans. Their worldly prosperity 
may be great ; they may " not be in trouble, nor 
plagued as other men; their eyes may stand out 
with fatness, and they have more than heart 
could wish" (Ps. Ixxiii. 3 — 9). Nothing occurs 
to break the tide of their enjoyments, to humble 
their pride, or to remind them of God, judgment, 
and eternity. Thus are they given over to strong 
delusions, believing lies, and, perhaps, "without 
any bands in their death," they go, from a life of 



FOR OUR GOOD. 103 

undisturbed indulgence, to the ceaseless pangs of 
death eternal (2 Thess. ii. 10—12). Not so has 
God dealt with you. He has sent trouble into 
your dwelling, and sorrow into your heart. He 
has broken the routine of your worldly engage- 
ments, and the succession of your cherished joys. 
He has mercifully forced you to look upon death, 
and feel your kindred to the grave. Very hard, 
indeed, must your heart be, very blind your rea- 
son and conscience, if you have no thought of 
His power, your responsibility, and the endless fu- 
ture. The world, which absorbed all your hopes 
and cares, is now made dark. You see the perish- 
ableness of its best things, and its insufficiency to 
sustain or to cheer when the hour of suffering comes. 
The gourd, which sprang up as it were in a night, 
and made you forget the sheltering wings of the 
Eternal, has withered; and you cry out from anguish 
of spirit, " It is better for me to die than to live" 
(Jonah iv. 5 — 10)! Nay, you have turned to 
look, if no more, at religion, and wonder whether 



104 ENCOURAGEMENTS 

you might not obtain some of the comfort, which 
Christian faith seems to afford your pious friends. 
They may have come around you, and spoken 
more closely than ever before, of your immortal 
interest; perchance, asking leave to pray at your 
side, and laying some book of Christian advice on 
your table. Even the usages of society require, 
for a time, your seclusion from the gaieties and 
interchanges of the world. Your sadness itself 
disposes you to serious reflection. 

All these circumstances show that God has not 
abandoned you; but is calling you through his 
providence, concurring with his word, to turn 
from your past errors and find peace in his blessed 
service. O that you would not be disobedient to 
the heavenly voice! You are not prepared to 
deny the truth or the necessity of religion. You 
are not willing to die without a hope in Christ ; 
but have had some vague intention, at some more 
convenient season, to seek the favour of God. 
When can you expect a better opportunity? God, 



TO BELIEVE. 105 

who has promised blessing to the mourner; Christ, 
who was the Man of sorrows ; and the Holy Ghost, 
who is the Spirit of consolation, are especially near 
us in times of affliction. You have more leisure, 
and less interruption, from the tempting allurements 
of a worldly life. The interest of pious friends is 
awakened on your behalf, and they will assist you 
by their sympathies, advices, and prayers. Your 
heart, broken with grief, is more easy to be broken 
by contrition. There are scores of holy texts ad- 
dressed to you, which were silent in your days of 
ease and pleasure. There is an aching void in 
your bosom, craving to be filled with what the 
world cannot give. If ever salvation was brought 
nigh to you, it is now. " To-day, if you will hear 
his voice, harden not your hearts!" 

In a little while, the advantage of your present 
sorrow will pass away. The strong urgencies of 
life will draw you from your melancholy retreat. 
You will become, at least, more accustomed to 
your trial. Fresh engagements will thicken 



106 DANGER OF DELAY. 

around you. Fresh cares, if not pleasures, will 
occupy your thoughts and affections. You may 
become (start not at the suggestion, but look around 
and see to how many it has happened, and why 
not to you?) as worldly as though you had never 
been afflicted. Then, if God still have mercy in 
store for you, it will need another and sharper 
stroke to arouse you again. Your conscience 
will have been made callous by repeated wounds; 
and each added cicatrice harden your heart against 
the impressions of grace. Put not your merciful 
Father to such severity ! Presume not thus upon 
his long-suffering goodness ! Resist not the stri- 
vings of his compassionate spirit ; but by a hum- 
ble faith and earnest repentance, turn your sorrow 
into joy ; and out of the bitterness of death extract 
the sweet assurance of everlasting peace ! 



EARLY LOST, EAELY SAVED. 

THE CONSOLATION. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Afflictions of the believer not strange. No chastisement 
without actual suffering. Sorrow not forbidden, but 
should be regulated. I. Our afflictions part of Provi- 
dence ; as regards ourselves : as regards others : as 
regards the divine glory. 

To the true believer, every trial abounds in conn- 
fort ; so much so, that the apostle James begins 
his strong epistle by exhorting his brethren " to 
count it all joy when they fall into divers tempta- 
tions" (or trials, for the words are synonymous) ; 
and again he tells them, " Blessed is the man that 
endureth temptation" (i. 12); which, indeed, he 
might well say, since our divine Lord set him the 
example, when he pronounced ''those that mourn," 



108 AFFLICTIONS NOT STRANGE. 

" blessed," because " they shall be comforted" 
(Matt. V. 4). Instead of thinking afflictions strange 
or mysterious ; when we consider our many infir- 
mities, and the great need we are in of being chas- 
tened from our sin, we should rather wonder at our 
suffering so little ; especially, as we are told, that 
it is " through much tribulation we are to enter 
the kingdom of God" (Acts xiv. 22) ; and remem- 
ber out of what great tribulation the martyrs and 
confessors reached their rank at the foot of the 
throne (Rev. vii. 14). The Scriptures, throughout, 
speak of God's people as a people of sorrow, for 
they are stored full of promises to the sad and the 
weary and the heavy laden; nay, the prophetic 
command to the Messiah was, " Comfort ye my 
people" (Is. xl. 1), and the name by which his 
people waited for Him was, " The Consolation of 
Israel" (Luke ii. 25). Theirs must be a condition 
of trial, whose God is " the God of all comfort" 
(2 Cor. i. 3). If we were free from trial, the 
doubt might well arise in our minds, whether we 



CHASTISEMENT PAINFUL. 109 

were true followers of our great Example, the Man 
of Sorrows; or children of our heavenly Father, 
" for what son is he whom the father chasteneth 
not?" (Heb. xii. 7.) None can follow after Jesus, 
except they bear a cross ; and none be partakers 
of the promises, except through faith and patience 
they inherit them. 

Because there is comfort for the believer in eve- 
ry trial, it does not follow, that pain is taken out 
of it. If we did not suffer, we should not be tried. 
That is no chastisement, which causes no suffer- 
ing. Comfort itself supposes sorrow; for it is 
the alleviation, not the extinction of grief. The 
strongest faith, the most assured hope, the hum- 
blest submissiveness, do not render us insensible to 
affliction ; for, then, it would cease to be afflictiono 
Callousness, under w^hat God means for chasten- 
ing, would be despitefully resisting it, as an obsti- 
nate child braces himself to a dogged indifference 
under his father's rod ; which is what the author 
of the epistle to the Hebrews condemns, when he 

K 



110 SORROW 

says : " My son, despise not thou the chastenings 
of the Lord" (Heb. vii. 5). There never could 
be greater faith, or hope, or submission, than Jesus 
manifested ; yet there never was sorrow like his 
sorrow, and through his actual sufferings we are 
saved. The Christian is, from his renewed na- 
ture, more sensitive to trial, because his affections 
are stronger, and his sensibilities more refined. 
Our religion, unlike the philosophical attempts of 
the Stoics, who would make men insensible to 
grief through insensibility to joy, by increasing 
our joys, increases our sense of sorrow. Our 
perfect joy, when all sorrow shall have passed 
away, is to come. They know not the mind of 
Christ, who pronounce sorrow necessarily rebel- 
lion. There is a sorrow " which worketh death," 
but it is " the sorrow of the world ;" and there is 
" a godly sorrow, which worketh repentance unto 
salvation" (2 Cor. vii. 9, 10). Jesus once said to 
a mourner, "Weep not" (Luke vii. 18); but it 
was when he meant to give back the child she 



NOT FORBIDDEN. Ill 

wept for, into her bosom. He himself wept at the 
tomb of his friend, though in another moment he 
called Lazarus forth to hfe. Nay, the Holy 
Ghost expressly tells us, that, " Now no chasten- 
ingfor the present seemeth to be joyous but grie- 
vous,* nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peace- 
able fruit of righteousness to them that are exer- 
cised thereby" (Heb. xii. 11); the grievous exer- 
cise at the time being necessary to "the peaceable 
fruit of righteousness" afterward. . 

Chide not yourself, then, afflicted believer, be- 
cause you cannot help but mourn ; neither strive 
vainly to dam up the tide of your sorrow. God 
meant that you should mourn, when he sent afflic- 
tion upon you ; and he commands you to pour out 
all your sorrows before him. You will gain no- 
thing by the attempt to stifle your grief; for you 
cannot, except by stifling your heart. Tears are 
the relief which Nature has provided, that brain 
and heart may not burst ; and Jesus has sanctified 
them against that hour, when he shall wipe the 



112 SORROWS 

last tear from the face of his chosen (Rev. xxi. 1). 
It were treason to humanity, and rebellion against 
the God who made us, not to weep when a por- 
tion of our Hfe and a gift of his blessing is taken 
away. The Father has smitten you with his rod ; 
kiss it as you weep; then turn your face into 
his bosom, Kke a penitent, trustful child, to sob 
out all your sorrows there. 

Yet, here there must be caution. If we are 
not to despise the chastening of the Lord, nei- 
ther are we " to faint, when we are rebuked of 
him." If all were comfort, there were no sor- 
row; if all were sorrow, no comfort; the Gos- 
pel would fail of its end, and the Christian lose 
his character. Thus the wise, tender-hearted Fla- 
vel writes at the beginning of his " Token for 
Mourners :" " To be above the stroke of passion, 
is a condition equal to angels; to be in a state of 
sorrow without the sense of sorrow, is a disposition 
beneath beasts ; but duly to regulate our sorrows 
and bound our passions under the rod, is the wis- 



TO RE REGULATED* ll3 

dom, duty and excellence of a Christian. He, that 
is without natural affections, is deservedly ranked 
among the worst of heathens; and he, that is able 
rightly to manage them, deserves to be numbered 
among the best of Christians. Though when we 
are sanctified, we put on the divine nature; yet, till 
we are sanctified, we put not off the infirmities of 
human nature. Whilst we are within the reach of 
troubles, we cannot be without the danger, nor 
ought we to be without the fear of sin ; and it is 
as hard for us to escape sin, being in adversity, as 
becalming in prosperity." 

Our aim under affliction, therefore, should be, 
so to regulate our sorrows by the help of divine 
grace, that we may have the advantage of such 
divine comfort as the Gospel freely affords. In 
order to do this, 

1. Let us consider our afflictions as part of 
God's providence. 

As regards ourselves. It is a most joyful truth, 
the belief of which distinguishes us from atheists 
k2 



114 god's ways 

and heathen, that " the Lord reigneth" (Ps. xcvii. 
1); because his wisdom and power being infinite, 
there can be neither error nor failure in his dispo- 
sition of things ; and he has by a gracious cove- 
nant made his providence the care of a tender, 
faithful Father over all those who love and trust in 
him (Ps. ciii. 11 — 14). We should see not only 
the hand of God, but the hand of our heavenly 
Father, full of mercy and loving kindness, in all 
that befalls us, whether afflictive or otherwise; and, 
therefore, should believe it to be best for us be- 
cause it is his will. 

Our own knowledge is so very small, and our 
strength less, that we would not for a moment think 
of taking the general conduct of our affairs out of His 
hands ; shall we then wish to alter any particular 
instance of His doing, because it gives us present 
pain, and we cannot see the precise reason for it? 
It is His doings therefore it must be right; and, if 
it be painful. He meant that it should be. It may 
very well be mysterious, fur his thoughts and 



ABOVE OUR WAYS. 115 

ways are incomparably above ours ; we must be 
as wise as God, or God as limited in comprehen- 
sion as ourselves, before Vv'e can understand all 
the reasons of his Providence ; but we ought to be 
sure that He is as faithful in mercy, as He is 
sovereign in ruling : " Clouds and darkness are 
round about him ;" but " righteousness and judg- 
ment are the habitation of his throne" (Ps. xcvii. 
2). There is the ground of our confidence, and 
there should be the source of our comfort. 

A landsman at sea understands little how a ves- 
sel is worked ; he sees her often heading almost 
back from her course; making many strange and 
contrary traverses ; sometimes stript of her can- 
vass, when all to him seems fair ; sometimes 
strong sails set upon her, when the storm is 
driving fiercely ; yet he trusts in the presiding 
skill, nor would dare to give, much less counter- 
mand, an order ; for, in the extremity of his own 
ignorance, he has the comfort of knowing that the 
pilot knows. So in the hour of gloom, let us trust 



116 DIVINE 

in God ; for to Him the night shineth as the day ; 
and what to us appears adverse, to Him is the 
guidance of our prosperity- 

He would be an unfaithful physician, who 
should spare the caustic, the probe, or the knife, 
because of the patient's shrinking ; or suffer the 
disease to triumph, rather than cause a few sick- 
ening qualms, which might throw off the eviL 
So should we see in the very paiiifulness of our 
afflictions, a proof that their severity was needed 
for our moral well-being, since our merciful Lord, 
the Good Physician, would not unnecessarily af- 
flict us. 

A parent would be cruel, who should suffer his 
child to put its little hand into the flame; or refuse 
it nothing that it craved, however pernicious ; or 
suffer it to keep what it was turning to mischief 
against itself; or allow it the extravagance of pas- 
sion unchecked by chastisement. It is the pa- 
rent's office to employ superior wisdom and larger 
experience for the good of the child, even against 



FIDELITY. 117 

its rebellious will. So, since God has assured us 
that He is our most merciful and faithful Father, 
we should readily submit to our restraints, depri- 
vations, losses and sufferings, as so many proofs 
that a wise, unerring love, is dealing with us in 
the best manner for our profit. 

The passenger thanks his pilot, when the port 
is safely gained ; the patient rewards his phy- 
sician, when his painful cure is effected ; the 
grown-up man looks back with satisfaction upon 
the parental discipline of his youth ; and, though 
we see not the reason of them now, we shall bless 
God in heaven, and ought to bless him on earth, 
for all the trials we meet along our way there. 

Our personal sorrows are more to us than they 
can be to another, or another's can be to us ; yet 
they are not extraordinary. They must be great, 
indeed, if they bear any comparison with those of 
Job or Daniel, or the stoned prophets, or the Mac- 
cabees, or the apostles, or the early confessors and 
martyrs, or the Huguenots and mountain Chris- 



118 THE PROOF OF ADOPTION. 

tians, or the saints of God in Scotland and Eng- 
land and the Low Countries, under their persecu- 
tions; or, above all, with the sorrows of Him, who 
is our Forerunner, Head and Example. All God's 
best saints have been afflicted like their Master, 
" the stricken of God." It is God's fixed method, 
that obedience must be learned through suffering 
(Heb ii. 10, v. 8). We professed our willingness 
to endure his chastisements, when we entreated 
him for Christ the Sufferer's sake, to be our al- 
mighty and most merciful Father. It were then 
most unreasonable and presumptuous to expect 
that God would, in our case, vary his determined 
rule, and miraculously (for that is a miracle which 
is a deviation from the regular course of Provi- 
dence) work our sanctification without afflicting 
us. Nay, to decline chastisement, is to refuse the 
proof of our adoption: "For, if we endure chas- 
tisement, God dealeth with us as with sons ; for 
what son is he, whom the father chasteneth not ? 
But if we be without chastisements, whereof all 



GRIEF, WHEN EXCESSIVE. 119 

are partakers, then are we bastards and not sons" 
(Heb. xii. 7, 8). The end of our chastisenient is 
" our profit, that we may be partakers of his ho- 
liness" (10 v.). 

When, therefore, our sorrows blind us to the 
faithfulness of God, and we love Him less, and not 
more, on account of them; when we wish our cir- 
cumstances otherwise, and are more anxious for 
the removal of our afflictions than our profit from 
them ; when they sink our affections to the earth, 
instead of lifting them up where Christ sitteth at 
the right hand of the Father ; we may be sure that 
our grief is excessive; that we are making our 
trials hurtful where God meant them for good ; 
and that what w^e have lost or been disappointed 
in, is still an idol, absorbing our hearts from Him, 
who should be "the strength of our hearts and our 
portion forever." 

When, on the contrary, be our sorrows and 
pams never so great, we feel our hearts drawn 
nearer to God, to Christ, his people, his cause and 



120 GRIEF, NOT EXCESSIVE. 

heaven; the promises sweeter and sin more hate- 
ful; oiu^ self-examinations closer, and our desires 
after holiness stronger; our grief is not excessive, 
and we may believe that there is sown for us in 
our afflictions a harvest of righteous peace ; for, 
then, are we of that blessed number whom the 
apostle Peter addresses, when he says : " Ye 
greatly rejoice (in the hope of the incorruptible, 
undefiled, unfading inheritance), though now for a 
season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through 
manifold temptations ; that the trial of your faith, 
being much more precious than of gold which 
perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be 
found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the 
appearing of Jesus Christ ; whom, having not 
seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him 
not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable 
and full of glory ; receiving the end of your faith, 
even the salvation of your souls" (1 Peter i. 
6—9). 



OUR CONCERNS CONCERN OTHERS. 121 

Our afflictions are part of God's providence, 
^5 regards others. It is a narrow and irra- 
tional selfishness to look upon what concerns us, 
as separated from what concerns others. We are 
necessarily, intimately, and throughout, connected 
with them. Each of us is but a single individual 
of a vast family, over which God is watching by 
his providence. Our joys and our sorrows come 
to us through our kindred with the race. We, 
therefore, judge very imperfectly, when we look 
not beyond ourselves in judging of the reasons 
which God has for afflicting us. 

Our afflictions are necessary to accomplish His 
will in the world ; we, if faithful, shall have our 
compensation in sharing the good of the general 
result ; and the hope of this should be our con- 
solation. It often occurs in human affairs, that 
one or a ^ew must temporarily suffer for the ad- 
vantage of the many ; and we applaud those who, 
out of a magnanimous, public-spirited resolution, 
submit cheerfully to become honourably devoted 



122 SELF-DEVOTION. 

for the welfare of friends, their country, the world 
or the church. Parents toil, deny themselves, and 
bear pain for their offspring ; the soldier perils his 
life for his native land; the man of science for dis- 
covery; the philanthropist for mankind ; the con- 
fessor under persecution for the cause of his faith : 
nay, our highest Example devoted himself to sor- 
row, toil, shame and death, for his people. This 
thought should nobly reconcile us to our personal 
sorrows. We may not, as was said before, see 
how God is accomplishing good to others through 
our trials ; but we ought to believe that He will. 
Our horizon is very small, our experience very 
brief; but God comprehends all the vast fature as 
well as the present. 

Paul's imprisonment at Rome must have been 
painful to him, and mysterious to the churches 
who needed his active ministry ; the same may be 
said of John's exile to Patmos; yet but for the 
first we should not have had several glowing epis- 
tles, nor but for the second, the sublime heaven- 



OUR LOSS, THE GAIN OF OTHERS. 123 

opening Revelation, which Scriptures have been the 
strengthening food of Christians from their time, 
and shall be until time shall be no more. We are 
not apostles, and ought not to expect such eminent 
distinction of usefulness; but in our sphere, our 
trials may be comparatively as useful as theirs. 

Do we mourn the death of a pious friend ? It 
is a great sorrow to us ; but it is gain to him. 
Shall we, because of our loss, selfishly grudge it 
to him, that he is now free from life's ills, se- 
cure from earth's temptations, and beyond time's 
changes ; that, from the stormy sea we are sailing 
on, he has reached a quiet haven ; that he is glad, 
with the holy angels, in the presence of God; that 
he is immortal, and sinless, and sorrowless, and 
filled with an enrapturing knowledge which here 
he was ever longing after? Or is your bosom 
made desolate of your child? It is a great sorrow 
to you ; but how kind a Providence has it been to 
the little one, who only touched its lip to the bitter 
cup which you are now drinking, and changed the 



124 THE SCHOOL 

care of an imperfect, frail, sinful, short-sighted, 
though fond parent, lor the eternal arms of its 
heavenly Father? These are strong instances; 
but in every occasion of sorrow to us, there is oc- 
casion of good, though we may not see it, to some 
other or many others, which we could not, with- 
out the most unkind covetousness, wish were de- 
nied them, that we might have our own personal 
ease and quiet. 

God designs and calls every Christian to exert 
some degree of useful influence among his fellow 
men. Our trials may be necessary to purify our 
spirits, restrain our earthward propensities, make 
our zeal more single for the truth, and so fit us 
for the sphere, the work and purpose to which we 
are designed. The forty years of secluded pasto- 
ral life in the desert, to which Moses was exiled, 
must have been a long, severe trial, for one trained 
in the court, and among the learned men of Egypt; 
but it was, for that very reason, necessary to edu- 
cate his spirit in patience, labour, and meekness, 



OF SUFFERING. 125 

that he might wisely and steadily govern Israel 
while wandering in the desert. The same was 
true of David : " Before I was afflicted," says the 
royal penitent, " I went astray ; but now have I 
kept thy word" (Ps. cxix. 67). The apostles 
were all schooled, by suffering, for their great work 
of establishing the church, and it is most delight- 
ful, in their epistles, to mark the change of the 
rash, presumptuous, hot-headed Peter, into the 
sympathizing comforter of the weaker brethren ; 
and of the intolerant John, who, with his brother, 
would have called down fire upon the Samaritan's 
head, into the loving preacher of the gentlest cha- 
rity. Nay, Jesus himself was the Man of Sor- 
rows, that he might, even on the throne of his 
glory, have a sense of our infirmities, and know 
how to succour those that are tempted. The low- 
est soldier in the ranks is disciplined long and 
hardly, before he is thought fit for the burdens, 
the privations, and the obedience of a campaign. 
It is a great work which we have to do ; many 
L 2 



126 THE TEST OF SORROW, 

immortal interests are connected with our instru- 
mentality; nor should we be impatient of any 
training, however sorrowful for the time, which 
may make us more useful in the cause of salva- 
tion. At the least, we can, by divine grace, set 
such an example of patience and quietness under 
the divine hand, as may be very edifying and con- 
vincing of the Gospel's efficacy, to those who see 
our demeanour. Job was stript of all the human 
heart holds dear, wealth, station, friends, children, 
health, and even his good name ; but his example 
put to shame the boast of the tempter, gratified the 
holy angels with a sublime spectacle of triumphant 
faith, and lives on the sacred page for the encou- 
ragement and learning of God's afflicted saints in 
all ages. 

When, therefore, our troubles render us insen- 
sible to the well-being of others, turning all our 
cares and thoughts inward with a moody, isolated 
grief; we may be sure that our sorrow is excessive. 
But when, in the midst of our own pains, we can 



god's glory, our good. 127 

yet weep with others that weep, and rejoice with 
those that rejoice, so that our aim is to render our 
afflictions occasions of their benefit, and it is a 
comfort to find them profited by our losses; such 
a use of sorrow lifts us up to a sympathy with the 
suffering Saviour and his devoted martyrs. 
Our afflictions are part of God's providence, 
As regards His own glory. It is the true 
Christian's great and only comfort in life and 
death, to believe that he is not his own, that he is 
" bought with a price," and " belongs unto his 
faithful Saviour, Jesus Christ." To be the instru- 
ment of his heavenly Father's glory, the servant 
of his Redeemer's honour, and this not only in 
time but throughout eternity, is his high honour 
and chief ambition. Hence it is our first Christian 
duty to resolve all our will into the will of God, 
and to choose that, and only that, which He 
chooses for us; because the end being His glory, 
He knows best, and has the right of determining, 
how to bring it about. To insist upon having our 



i^S THE MIGHTY WORKING. 

way, is breaking the covenant by which we bound 
ourselves to his service ; to question the wisdom 
of any arrangenaent of His, is drawing back from 
our willing consecration to His praise. Shall a 
faithful servant dispute with his master, or a loyal 
subject with his prince, because ordered to a diffi- 
cult task or a perilous post? Then it is that he 
has the best opportunity of proving his fidelity and 
allegiance. 

All the events of human history, in the lives of 
persons and the affairs of nations, are working to- 
gether for the glory of God. From the beginning 
He has been weaving them into the garment of 
praise, with which he will enrobe himself at the 
close, for the admiration of eternity. Our sor- 
rows and joys, however insignificant we may 
seem, are mingled in the mighty web. God alone 
can discover all their connexion, the interlinking 
of circumstances so slight compared with the vast 
whole; but He does know, for He has arranged 
them; and that should be enough to satisfy us. 



god's glory in our steadfastness. 129 

We have already seen how He deems chastise- 
ment systematically necessary to our sanctlfication 
from sin, which it is the purpose of His grace to 
accomplish; and how He uses our experience of 
trial for the moral good or rebuke of others, which 
is His glory. There is no spectacle on earth in 
which He displays so much of his gracious power, 
as that of a believer pressed by troubles, persecu- 
tions, or sufferings, yet steadfast and patient, and 
humbly trustful under all. None have been more 
frequent in the history of his church, and none 
have gained more triumphs from the world. 
When trial comes upon us, it is a call to share 
with those who came out of great tribulation, and 
with the Man of Sorrows Himself, in giving the 
testimony of a virtue, which, "though He slay 
us," will yet "trust in him;" wherefore, <' Blessed 
is the man who endureih temptation," for he is 
invited to the higher ranks of the glorified armies, 
and bright, above heaven's ordinary garniture, is 
the crown of life awaiting him. It is a privilege 



130 SUFFERING FOR CHRIST. 

to speak for Christ, to work for Christ, to live for 
Christ ; but it is a yet higher order of service to 
suffer for Christ. It is a badge of our sonship, 
which we receive by our union to the suffering 
Son of God ; for, says the apostle, " If children, 
then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with 
Christ ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we 
may be also glorified together. For I reckon that 
the sufferings of this present time are not worthy 
to be compared with the glory which shall be re- 
vealed in us" (Rom. viii. 17, 18). Again, he 
writes to Timothy : " It is a faithful saying : For 
if we be dead with him, we shall also live with 
him ; if we suffer, we shall also reign with him ; 
if we deny him, he will also deny us; if we be- 
lieve not, he abideth faithful ; he cannot deny him- 
self" (2 Tim. ii. 11—13). The afflictions, laid 
upon us, are part of that suffering in which we are 
to glorify God, as well as persecutions or martyr- 
doms from Christ's enemies. If we faint under 
personal or domestic sorrows, we could never 



RESULTS IN ETERNITY. 131 

have endured the rack, or the flame, or the 
cross. 

The grand results of Providence are in eternity. 
There the Almighty Reaper will gather the full 
harvest of his glory which is sown in time. Our 
life in heaven will be immortal ; and our work in 
heaven perpetual praise to God and the Lamb. 
How God will employ actively the glorified facul- 
ties of his people, we are but imperfectly told ; but 
" his servants shall serve him" (Rev. xxii. 3), 
and their offices will be of a most elevated charac- 
ter. To fit us for that heavenly life and exalt- 
ed service is the end of our discipline, by afflic- 
tion, here ; as the apostle Peter says ; " That the 
trial of your faith, being much more precious than 
of gold which perisheth, though it be tried with 
fire, might be found unto praise, and honour, and 
glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ." The 
apostle Paul has the same thought, when he 
" reckons that the sorrows of this present time 
are not worthy to be compared to the glory which 



1S12 THE REFINING PROCESS. 

shall be revealed in us ;" not merely " the far more 
exceeding and eternal weight of glory," which 
shall be wrought out for us, but the glory of God 
which shall be revealed in our heavenly perfec- 
tion. Thus should we look upon our trials as the 
refining fire, purging away, by divine grace, the 
dross from our characters; the discipline neces- 
sary to set us free from the stains and infirmities 
which sin has brought upon our faculties; the 
process by which God is preparing us for the 
higher exercises of our immortality. It is but for 
a short time, a moment compared with eternity, 
that we shall suffer; and our afflictions, severe as 
they may be now, are light, compared to the glo- 
rious rewards. If we be faithful under trial, every 
pang, every tear, we may be sure, is making us 
more vigorous for our heavenly employment; and 
in proportion as we suffer now, we shall rise^ to 
the fuller enjoyment of those raptures and digni- 
ties, which are eternally found in glorifying God. 
Should not this hope of shining in the Redeemer's 



TEST OF SORROAV. 133 

glory ; manifesting the praises of Him who hath 
called us into marvellous light, and serving God, 
our heavenly Father, with a higher energy, recon- 
cile us to all the trials of our preparatory purifi- 
cation ? 

When, therefore, our sorrows deaden our zeal 
for the divine glory, and we are not comforted by 
the expectation that through our trials, patiently 
borne, God will accomplish the praise of his grace; 
our grief is excessive. But when, in the extremi- 
ties of distress, we yield ourselves to the divine 
disposal, anxious that God may display his wis- 
dom and power through our example here, and 
our higher service hereafter ; we have fellowship 
with " Jesus, who for the joy set before him en- 
dured the cross, despising the shame" (Heb. xii. 
1); for the joy, which made him obedient in sor- 
row until death, was the glory of God in the eter- 
nal redemption of his church. 

Thus, though we have considered the Provi- 
dence of God, as regards ourselves, as regards 

M 



134 god's will 

others, and as regards his own glory, we see that, 
our own highest good is closely connected with 
usefulness to our fellow men, and inseparably with 
the divine glory. When we make God's will our 
will, he makes our interest his interest. All things 
are ours if we be Christ's. This is a branch from 
the tree of life, enough to sweeten all the bitter 
waters of our sorrow. " O who can value," ex- 
claims Flavel, " the comfort that is tasted by the 
soul upon the trial and discovery of its sincerity, 
when, after some sore temptation, wherein God 
has helped us to maintain our integrity; or after 
some close pinching affliction, wherein we have 
discovered in ourselves a sweet resignation to, 
and contentment with the will of God, an heart 
cleaving to the Lord, purged and made more spi- 
ritual under the rod; we can turn to the Lord, 
and appeal to him as the prophet did : ' But thou, 
O Lord, knowest me; thou hast seen me and tried 
mine heart towards thee' (Jer. xii. 3). I say, who 
can value such an advantage ? Who would ex- 



OUR INTEREST. 135 

change such a comfort for all the gold and sil- 
ver in the world? How many trials soever God 
brings his people under, to be sure neither his 
own glory, nor their interests, shall receive any 
damage by them!" 



EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 



THE CONSOLATION. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Farther considerations to regulate grief. II. Our re- 
maining mercies. We deserve nothing, yet have 
Christ, the unspeakable gift of God. III. Our duties. 
Sorrow should not make us unfaithful. Zeal of Christ 
in his affliction. Consolation in doing good. IV. The 
sympathy of Christ for his people. The God-man. 
The Man of Sorrows. His strength perfect in our 
weakness. V. The Rest awaiting us. No satisfac- 
tion promised here. Salvation by hope. The far 
more exceeding and eternal glory. 

II. We should consider the mercies of God, 
which remain to us. 

We may have lost what to us was a highly- 
prized treasure and unspeakable delight: all our 
attention is drawn to our bereavement; our hearts 



GOD HAS NOT TAKEN ALL FROM US. 137 

deprived of their cherished joy, present to us, like 
our homes, only a melancholy vacuum; we are 
absorhed by what is gone ; and so are tempted to 
say, All is lost. 

But is this true? Has God taken all from us? 
All our friends are not departed, though the dear- 
est one may be. Even now, kind sympathizing 
hearts are beating for us ; and gentle hands are 
ready to render us a not unwelcome ministry, and 
low-breathed voices are uttering words of promise 
or of prayer. It is true, our tears flow faster at 
such attempts to console us; and we feel, not without 
bitterness, how vain is the best intention of human 
friendship to make up for the absence of what we 
mourn after. Yet, let us suppose the reverse, that 
the last earthly friend had been taken, and we 
were utterly alone in the world ; poor, despised, 
overlooked by the crowd of busy mortals ; without 
one tongue to say. Look up, and be hopeful ! one 
hand to clasp ours in mute eloquence of consent- 
ing sorrow, one heart to pray by our side ; that 
m2 



138 WHAT GOD TOOK, HE LENT. 

we were driven to caves or dens of the earth, or 
our pangs mocked by cruel persecutors! Yet, 
such have been the trials, through which many of 
God's best people have passed, their nearest rela- 
tives and bosom friends tortured to death before 
their eyes, their children impaled and borne aloft 
on the soldier's spear, or dashed against the flints. 
Is it nothing that you are spared from such aggra- 
vated anguish, and are permitted the privilege of 
an unmolested grief and Christian ministrations? 
You are now so taken up with your grief, as 
to think little of what remains to you ; but, would 
you be willing to part with surviving friends or 
spared supports! Consider that all came from 
God, what is left and what is taken; that all 
belong to God, lent you only to use and enjoy 
for his glory ; and now, because he has recalled 
a portion of his own into his own hands, will 
you despise what he still allows you to have? All 
the virtue which his creatures have to bless us, is 
derived from Him; and, because one stream is 



HAVE CHRIST, HAVE ALL. 139 

dried up, can He send no waters of life by those 
which are flowing on? Even if he has taken 
all, and there remains to you not one, of all 
the kindred you have loved, to love you, not one 
of all your former stays to support you, have you 
not Himself, through Jesus Christ, your heavenly 
Father, Friend, Portion and Strength, forever? Is 
it not your duty, have you not professed it to be 
your privilege, your desire and aim, to love Him 
with all your heart and mind and strength: to 
love him better than friend, father, mother, sister, 
wife, husband, child, brother? And now, if, since 
he has taken, in his wise and sovereign and 
merciful will, any of all these from you, you 
shut yourself up to despair, is it not a proof 
that you had given them an idolatrous place in 
your affections, and were loving and serving his 
creatures " more than the Creator, who is God 
over all blessed forever?" Do you not repeat 
the lament of the unhappy heathen, who cried 
after his idols: "Ye have taken away my gods. 



140 GOD IN CHRIST, BEST OF ALL. 

and what have I more?" (Gen. xxxi. 30; Judges 
xviii. 24.) Ask of yourself, whether you. would 
be willing to give up the love and care of your 
covenant God and affectionate Redeemer, to get 
back all for which you are mourning? Or, whe- 
ther it becomes one who has the eternal God for 
his portion, the privileges of his communion on 
earth, and the expectation of partaking his glory 
in heaven> to bemoan and despair, as though in 
the grave were buried all his riches and hope? 
Truly, if our bereavements show that we have been 
so taken up with God's gifts, which he intended 
to increase our love for him, that we value him 
and his comforts less than they ; it was high 
time for him to remove the causes of our infidelity, 
and compel us back to our only proper trust. 

What are we, that we thus quarrel vv^ith and 
chide God, because " it pleases the Father to 
bruise us and to put us to grief;" because for his 
own glory, he has called back a life that he gave; 
because he has crossed our wishes in carrying on 



MERCY IN SORROW. 141 

his own purposes? Are we like the holy angels, 
who deserve nothing but joy? Have we been 
ever faithful to Him, and in the use of his gifts 
always glorified his name? Ah! my afflicted 
friend, we are nothing but sinners; and so far 
from wondering that we are called to suffer, we 
should rather wonder that we are not in endless, 
unrelieved, remediless wo ! Have we not con- 
fessed that we deserve His wrath ? Do we not 
know that we are saved from it only by the un- 
speakable sorrows and agonies of His incarnate 
Son? When He has put forth his strong hand 
and lifted us up from the depths of our guilt, cor- 
ruption and despair, to give us the earnest of an 
eternal and blissful heaven; should we not bless 
Him, and rejoice in Him, whatever sorrows He 
leaves in our cup? When our salvation cost such 
sorrows of the Son of God, should we refuse what- 
ever passing sorrows are needed for our sanctifi- 
cation ? 

It is a clear sign of our grief being excessive,, 



142 DUTIES REQUIRED OF US. 

when it so clouds our sight, that we cannot see the 
goodness and the grace of God in his remaining 
favours, or find consolation in Himself; but, when 
our thanks mingle with our sufferings, and we 
cling to his compassion with a penitent, hopeful 
spirit, weeping in the very arms of his love, our 
sorrow is safe, sweet, sanctified and salutary. 

III. We should consider our duties. 

We are not our own, but belong to God, by 
the threefold indenture of creation, redemption, 
and dedication. All our powers and all our time 
are by right his. It is robbery to withhold or 
alienate them, in any degree, from his service 
(Mai. iii. 8). It cannot be, that we have nothing 
to do, when there is so much to be done, so few 
to do it, and so little time to do it in ; when there 
are so many souls to be converted, so many des- 
titute to be relieved, so many poor children to be 
taught, so many sorrowing ones to be comforted, 
so many weak ones to be built up; when the 
church of Christ is yet so small, the number of 



JESUS, THE SUFFERER, ZEALOUS. 143 

faithful, energetic labourers still smaller, making 
the absence or inactivity of any one to be severe- 
ly felt ; and when our lives, in which we have the 
opportunity of working for God on earth, are fast 
passing away, and, in a moment, when we think 
not, may be brought to a close. 

Our blessed Lord was continually bowed down 
with the weight of sorrows, yet he never intermit- 
ted his labours, or relaxed his zeal for us on that 
account, but wrought the more while it was day, 
because the night was coming when no man can 
work. In the same spirit, he tolerated no remiss- 
ness on the part of those, who professed to serve 
him; for when one said: ''Lord, suffer me first to 
go and bury my father," the Master's answer was ; 
"Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead" 
(Matt. viii. 21, 22); not that he forbids a proper 
respect for the dust of the beloved dead, but that 
no feeling of the kind should hinder us from fol- 
lowing him. Thus, the apostles and early Chris- 
tians, in the midst of the most bitter persecutions 



144 DUTY, A COMFORT. 

and sad bereavements, laboured on so zealously, 
that the church has never since equalled their zeal 
or successes. 

Shall we, then, because God has laid his rod 
upon us, think ourselves absolved from duties, 
for the neglect of which we deserve chastisement? 
Because some earthly comfort is gone, shall we 
turn away from the path of life, or the labours 
which earn eternal reward through grace? Shall 
we refuse to serve the best interests of the living, 
in our feeding of sorrow for the dead? Or, shall 
our incomparably less suffering make us deserters 
from His cause, who by his sufferings and through 
his sufferings, wrought out eternal redemption for 
us? 

Besides, as the path of duty is the only path of 
safety, so it is only in the practice of duty that we 
can expect comfort. We reason with our friends 
in affliction, entreating them forth from their sha- 
dowed chambers; where grief, constantly indulged, 
becomes morbid, and the physical powers give 



DOING GOOD, A SOLACE. 145 

way, until disease of body aggravates disease of 
mind ; to take exercise in the open air, to inhale 
the odorous, breezy breath of nature, to feel the 
sun, and to look upon the faces of their kind. 
We account it a happy thing, when business or 
other urgencies of life, compel a mourner to shake 
off the ashes from his sackcloth, and divide his 
thoughts with grief. But there is no engagement 
or exercise so healthful to an afflicted spirit, as 
doing good. As we mingle with those of the 
outer world, for the purpose of helping them in 
their distresses and dangers, we see that there are 
other mourners, and some, perchance, far more 
to be pitied than ourselves; we learn to compare 
the wants and perils of souls without hope, against 
our religious comforts, small as our moody blind- 
ness has thought them to be ; and we find an oc- 
cupation for our hearts and minds and hands and 
means and time, which, according to the retribu- 
tive rules of Providence, brings a reward of peace- 
ful satisfaction. This was, in fact, our blessed 

N 



146 OUR Mx^ster's joy on earth. 

Master's way of comforting himself; for, if, in his 
sad journeyings, bowing under our sins, vexed by 
" the contradictions of sinners against himself," he 
found a leper, or a blind man, or a paralytic, or 
one dumb from his birth, or a mourner over the 
recent dead, or a sinner who would listen to his 
word, he but stayed his steps to work a cure, or 
raise the dead, or convert the lost, and his spirit 
grew strong, as from heavenly meat and wine 
(Matt. iv. 32, 34). 

So, Christian, when thy heart grows faint, 
Amid the toils that throng the saint, 
Seek thou some blessing to impart 
Unto some other human heart. 
And thou thy Master's joy shalt share. 
E'en while his cross thy shoulders bear. 

The joy of the Saviour was in doing good; and, 
therefore, when, anticipating the sorrows which 
were to come upon his disciples, he would comfort 
them beforehand, he gave them his command- 
ments, especially the commandment of love, and 



TEST OF OUH GRIEF. 147 

said: "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall 
abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's 
commandments, and abide in his love. These 
things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might 
remain in you, and that your joy might be full " 
(John XV. 10, 11). 

If, therefore, our sorrows so discompose our 
minds, as to dissuade and hinder us from at- 
tempting our manifest Christian duties, and we 
shut ourselves up selfishly from the world, in 
which we are commanded to set an example 
like light, and to diffuse a saving influence lil^e 
salt, it is very clear that our grief is excessive, 
and our zeal, so easily shaken, very insufficient; 
but, if, though we carry within us a sad heart, 
we yet seek to carry the grace of our Saviour, 
where the Man of Sorrows carried it when he was 
on earth, and hath left us to carry it in his name, 
we have the promise, nay, the present blessing of 
our Lord's strength and sympathy. 



148 THE TEMPTED 

IV. We should consider the sympathy of Christ 
with his people. 

It was necessary for our Lord to become incar- 
nate, that as our Elder Brother, our Kinsman-Re- 
deemer, he might on earth fulfil the law which we 
had broken, and die the death which we deserved 
to die, thus accomplishing our deliverance from 
wrath, and setting an example for us to follow 
his steps. The weight of sorrow was, therefore, 
part of the burden which he undertook to bear as 
our Mediator. From the fact of his incarnation 
as the Man of Sorrows, however, we derive the 
most precious assurance of his nearness to us, and 
sympathy with us. His example being set us in 
sorrows, shows that sorrow is the frequent, nay, 
the ordinary experience of his followers; but, bless- 
ed be his name ! it shows us, also, that he has a 
"feeling of our infirmities, having been in all 
points tempted like as we are, yet without sin " 
(Heb. iv. 15); and "in that he himself hath suf- 
fered, being tempted, he is able to succour them 



THE SFCCOURER. 149 

that are tempted" (Heb. ii. 18). How very close 
must God be to his people, when he dwelt in the 
heart that was aching and agitated by human 
fears and pains and griefs! How very near may 
his people draw to Him, when he still dwells in the 
once afflicted and crucified, but now glorious huma- 
nity of our Elder Brother, at the right hand of the 
Majesty on high ! He is the Head, and we are of 
his body the members ; and, instant as the nerves 
conduct every sensation of the body to the pre- 
siding head, does He feel all that his people fee] 
of joy or sorrow. He is our Divine Head, and 
as He is human to feel with us, is he God 
Almighty, to help, sustain, and comfort us; so 
that, having such " a great High Priest, who has 
passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God," 
we may come with *' boldness unto the throne of 
grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace 
to help in time of need " (Heb. iv. 14, 16). 

This very consideration should teach us, that 
our sorrows bring us nearer to Jesus than our 
IS 2 



150 THE MAN OF SORROWS 

worldly prosperity ever could permit. He had little 
experience of joy on earth. His joy lay in the 
future, and the expectation of final success. He 
had no fellowship with the rich, the noble, the 
luxurious, or the honoured. If we would find the 
places which he hallowed by his presence, we 
must go to the poor man's house, the beggar's 
haunt by the way-side, the bed of the sick, and 
the chamber of mourning. Wherever piety dwells 
in sorrow, wherever a penitent soul is bowing in 
sackcloth, there he was, and there, by his Spirit, 
he still is. He did not take away our death by 
his own, but he took the sting out of it; so he 
has not removed our salutary sorrows, but purged 
them of all their bitterness. He took upon him 
our infirmities, that he might wrap our weak- 
ness about his strength. He, who bore with suc- 
cess most glorious all our penal sufferings, can 
enable us to bear all the sufferings needed for 
our sa notification. He does not remove the trial 
from us, though we are so unwise as to wish 



LORD OF JOY. 151 

that he would ; but he says, " My grace is suffi- 
cient for thee." It is His glory to make "his 
strength perfect in our weakness." When we are 
weak in ourselves, " we have omnipotence in him" 
(2 Cor. xii. 8, 9), So far from murmuring, there- 
fore, because of our trials, if we had the spirit of 
Paul we should rather glory in our infirmities, 
that Christ's own power might rest upon us. 

When we look in upon our hearts, and contem- 
plate only our sorrows, it is no wonder that we 
bow under the burden; but, when we look out of 
ourselves to Christ, and remember his sorrows 
for us on earth, and his almighty sympathy for 
us in glory, the thought of sharing his cup, 
of being baptized so deeply with his baptism, 
should fill us with a lively joy. O, what is any 
loss we can sustain, compared to the gain of find- 
ing Christ, of being closely united to him, and of 
the assurance that, as we have suffered with him, 
we shall enter into his joy ! Christ is infinitely 
more precious than all he can take away, for he 



152 OUR COMFORTS 

will not, cannot so deny himself, as to deny us his 
Presence now, and his Glory hereafter. 

This should moderate our sorrows, nay, even 
turn them into joy ; and excessive, indeed, must 
be the grief, which shuts from our hearts the free, 
unbounded, unspeakable consolations of a once 
suffering Saviour's sympathy, and a now glorified 
Saviour's power. 

V. We should consider the Rest which awaits 
us. 

The purpose of our religion is to prepare for 
eternity. It has many advantages for this life, 
but they are only as the manna and the stream, 
to refresh us until we reach our promised inherit- 
ance beyond Jordan. Our best, truest comforts, 
are grasped by hope reaching its hand far within 
the vail. With our regenerated desires, and new 
spiritual aims, it may be emphatically said, that 
" if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we 
are of all men most miserable" (1 Cor. xv. 19). 
"All the articles of our faith lead us where Christ 



ARE FROM HOPE. 153 

sitteth at the right hand of God."* All our pre- 
sent blessings come from above, and we look up 
to pray, expecting them down. The manna is 
bread from heaven, not the growth of earth ; and 
the stream of living waters flows from the rock 
Christ in glory. Of such account is this hope, 
in our spiritual life, that it is reckoned one of the 
three most necessary graces : " Now abideth these 
three, faith, hope, charity" (1 Cor. xiii. 13). If 
we are saved by faith, we are saved also by hope 
(Rom. viii. 24). If "love be the fulfilling of the 
law" (Rom. xiii. 10), "hope is as an anchor to 
the soul, sure and steadfast" (Heb. vi. 19); 
strengthening and confirming us under the trou- 
bles, and against the temptations of earth. Hope, 
according to the apostle, is next to love in the cli- 
max of Christian attainment here : " Therefore, 
being justified by faith, we have peace with God 
through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we 

* Communion Service of the Reformed Dutch Church 



154 OUE REST IS NOT HERE. 

have access by faith into this grace wherein we 
stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God;" 
and to the cultivation of this sanctifying hope, our 
trials from without, joined to love of the truth 
within, greatly contribute; for the apostle goes 
on : " And not only so, but we glory in tribula- 
tions also, knowing that tribulation worketh pa- 
tience ; and patience, experience ; and experience, 
hope ; and hope naaketh not ashamed ; because 
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by 
the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us" (Rom. 
v. 1 — 5). The Rest of the people of God "re- 
maineth" for them (Heb. iv. 9) ; it is not here ; 
on the contrary, the command to them says: 
" Arise ye and depart ; for this is not your rest, 
because it is polluted" (Micah ii. 10); and all 
God's providence concerning them is arranged, if 
it be used aright, to wean their affections from 
earth, and fix them upon heaven. 

Our afflictions, therefore, should be considered 
in reference to their eternal consequences. The 



THE JOY BEFOKE US. 155 

Scripture does not deny that they are grievous 
7101V (" no affliction for the present seemeth to be 
joyous, but grievous"); our blessed Lord, during 
all his Hfe here, was afflicted; and, "as he en- 
dured his cross and shame, so are we to endure 
our trials, for the joy set before us, looking unto 
him for strength and patience ; which we cannot 
do, except we look beyond time and above earth, 
to his throne at the right hand of God" (Heb. xii. 
1, 2). Severe as they may be, we should be re- 
conciled to all our sufferings, as Jesus was to his, 
by the assurance that in them is sown the seed of 
an eternal harvest, the peaceable fruits of righ- 
teousness for ourselves, and of greater glory to God, 
whose wise grace thus accomplishes our greater 
salvation. Our trials may be severe; the refining 
furnace is always hot ; but Jesus, ever merciful as 
well as faithful, is watching the fire, and ''he will 
not suffer us to be tried above that we are able by 
his help to bear" (1 Cor. x. 13); and there is a 
" need be," not only for every trial, but for the 



156 LOOKI]VG AT THE ETERNAL. 

degree of it. We shall, if "patience have her 
perfect work" (James i. 4), find an immortal 
blessing for every pang we feel, and an immortal 
joy for every tear we shed. Those who shall 
have come out of the greatest tribulation, will 
have the highest strain of thanksgiving. This 
made some of the early Christians covetous of 
persecution, ambitious of martyrdom, eager after 
tortures ; and, although in that respect we should 
not imitate them, for we have no right rashly to 
venture where God has not called us, yet we 
ought to be more than reconciled to afflictions 
from God's hand, by the method w^hich made 
Paul to rejoice in his trials, "of looking not 
at the things which are seen, but at the things 
which are not seen ; because the things which are 
seen are temporal, but the things which are not 
seen are eternal;" for, then, our heaviest sorrows 
will be light, and our longest sorrows but for a 
moment, since they are working out for us a far 



THE SORKOWLESS HOME. 157 

more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" 
(2 Cor. iv. 17, 18). 

The Rest which God provides for us is perfect 
and eternal. " The former things," the temporal 
circumstances which rendered the preparatory dis- 
cipline necessary, " shall be done away." " The 
Lord God shall wipe away every tear," the last 
tear, " from our eyes." "There shall be no more 
death ;" no more sickness, no more languor, no 
more sad decay, no pang of the dying, no 
changing to corruption of the beloved face ; no 
more watching by the painful bed; no more 
hiding the once cherished form out of sight 
in the cold, dark, damp ground ; no sad fune- 
ral, no grave, no mourning weeds in heaven : 
"Neither sorrow;" the sorrows of repentance 
shall cease, for there will be no more sin ; the 
sorrows of bereavement, for there will be no more 
loss; the sorrows of personal anguish, for there 
will be no more suffering ; the sorrows of sympa- 
thy, for all will be happy as ourselves : " Nor 
o 



158 FAR BETTER TO DEPART 

crying;" the groans which echo through our 
dwellings long after the stricken breast is still, 
the shriekings under intolerable pangs, the low 
naoanings of the mourner abandoned to grief that 
refuses to be comforted, the wail of the widowed 
heart, the sobbings of the orphan scarce con- 
scious of its deprivation, are never heard among 
the many mansions of our Father's house : " Nei- 
ther shall there be any more pain," for our bodies 
will be immortal in youthful vigour, and our spi- 
rits ravished with an unceasing, ever-increasing 
bliss (Rev. xxi. 4). 

The pious friends, the blessed little children, 
whom we mourn, have already entered that death- 
less, sorrowless, sinless, exulting Rest ; shall we, 
by selfish grief, regret their escape from the anguish 
we feel? There has the Master, after suffering 
and dying to purchase the right, gone to prepare 
places for us, and in a little while he will come 
to receive us up to himself: shall we refuse to 
bear for His sake, who has provided for us so rich 



AND BE WITH CHRIST. 159 

an inheritance, whatever trials He considers needed 
for our good and his glory? Surely, that grief 
must be excessive, which cKngs despairingly to 
earth, instead of longing with a consoling hope 
after the Rest above. 



EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 



THE CONSOLATION. 

CHAPTER X. 

Special consolation for Christians bereaved of Chil- 
dren. Adapted to parental hopes. I. The covenant 
with God. The promise of God fulfilled by the 
death of the Child. 

Full of comfort as Christians, in any sorrow, 
may find the Scriptures, those bereaved of their 
little ones have especial reasons to bless the name 
of Him, " who gave and hath taken away ;" for, 
besides sharing " many exceeding great and pre- 
cious promises," which are the common gracious 
property of afflicted saints, the form and circum- 
stances of their trial susrgest the richest and sweet- 
est compensations. 

The exquisite anguish of their bereavement arises 



STRENGTH OF PARENTAL LOVE. 161 

from the exquisite tenderness and strength of pa- 
rental love. Each class of our duties requires a 
corresponding, qualifying affection : love is the 
fulfilling of every law (Romans xiii. 10): and 
none less tender or strong than that which 
parents have toward their offspring, could suffi- 
ciently animate, encourage, or sustain them, in 
the discharge of those patient, anxious offices, ne- 
cessary for the uprearing and education of chil- 
dren out of the helplessness of infancy, through 
the thoughtless waywardness of youth, to self- 
governing maturity. 

Affection descends. Faithful children love and 
reverence their parents as the authors of their being, 
and the kind guardians of their early years ; but 
it is an affection of gratitude for benefits received. 
Faithful parents cherish their children from a high, 
God-implanted instinct, as their own life; regard 
them as parts of their own being ; labour, care, 
sacrifice for them more than for themselves ; and 
love them the better for the very labours, cares, 
o 2 



162 THE COMFORT NEEDED. 

sacrifices, which they cost. They deeply enjoy 
this affection, and are most happy in the exercise, 
the hopes, and successes of their guardianship; 
but their enjoyment is from the benefits which 
they confer, and their happiness from their chil- 
dren's happiness. They anticipate and endeavour 
to secure their children's virtue, accomplishments, 
prosperity, honour, usefulness, eternal welfare. 
Their aims stretch far beyond their own death, to 
bless their children's children. 

No comfort, therefore, can uphold a parent under 
the loss of a child, which is not addressed to this 
affection, nor can it be consoled except by the revi- 
val and assurance of its hopes. Here the Gospel 
proves the excellency of its merciful power ; for, as- 
suming the little one's immortal happiness to have 
been demonstrated, a Christian parent should have 
unspeakably greater satisfaction in its removal from 
this world to a better, than there is any warrant 
for expecting from its continuance here. The 
grace of Jesus demands no stoical apathy. He, 



THE COVENANT. 163 

who, dying in agony, comforted from his cross 
the mother of his humanity, about to be bereaved 
of the best son that ever blessed a maternal bosom, 
sees, from his throne, the sword which is piercing 
your heart also, sorrow-stricken mourner ! Well 
he knows that the tears of your anguish must have 
way ; but, as you loved the child with an unutter- 
able, unselfish tenderness, which would have given 
your life to save its life from sin, or suffering, or 
sorrow, he bids you look up and find a more than 
compensating joy in its assumption to the bosom 
of God. For consider, believer, 

I. The covenant you have with God. 

"As for man, his days are as grass; as a 
flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the 
wind passeth over it and it is gone; and the place 
thereof shall know it no more." Change, death, 
oblivion, are the history of man upon earth. 
When the grave takes one from our own house- 
hold, our windows are darkened against the sun- 
light, we sit in solitude, and bury ourselves in 



164 WE ALL DO FADE 

gloom ; but the world is bustling on without, the 
laugh of passers by, the whoop of playing chil- 
dren, the rattle of carriages, distant strains of mu- 
sic, reach our melancholy retreat, and we wonder 
how others can be so busy, or gay, or thoughtless, 
when all things seem to us so desolately sad. Yet 
is our trial no incredible or miraculous novelty. 
Though we can hardly realize that such beauty, 
such sweetness, such promise, has passed from 
our arms and our homes, none besides ourselves 
would have pronounced it improbable. It is the 
lot of man to die. The hold of little children upon 
life is very slight. The chances of their dying or 
living are at least equal. Scarcely a household 
among our circle of friends, but has been visited 
by similar sorrow, which we thought not strange, 
though we sympathised with the mourners. How 
many, once living, are now lying in dust! The lit- 
tle babe, the strong man, the hoary grandsire; the 
beggar, buried by shallow charity; the rich man, 
who was embalmed and had a long sumptuous fu- 



AS A LEAF. 165 

neral ; the slave, who fell wearily into a sleep no 
task-master's scourge could break ; the king, who 
built for himself a tomb like a fortress ! How, 
with rare exceptions, are they forgotten ! We 
know well nigh as little of him whose mummied 
corpse is torn by modern curiosity from the cell of 
a heaven-daring pyramid, built in his pride three 
thousand years ago ; as of the shipwrecked mari- 
ner, whose bones are crumbling, 

" Where rolls the Oregon, 
And hears no sound save its own dashings." 

" Man's days are as grass ;" and the field-flow- 
ers of a past summer, with their little lives under 
sunshine and shade, storm and shawer, will be as 
much remembered as he, with the sorrows and 
joys which to him were so important. We must 
soon follow^; friends will weep for us, bury us, put 
up a marble memorial; and, perchance, before the 
damp moss shall have grown over our names, we 
shall be forgotten, as though we never had been. 



166 THE CONTKAST 

The places which knew us, shall know us no 
more. 

Sad, indeed, is this story of humanity, but to 
the Christian sadder far, from his knowledge that 
all this change, death and infamy, are the fruits of 
sin ; nay, unless sin be expiated and repented of, 
the foreshadowings of eternal gloom, misery and 
shame. Repulsive as the idea of annihilation is, 
it were slight, to the horror of a miserable immor- 
tality ; and there is no anguish over the grave so 
great, as that which shudders at the recollection of 
the lost one having 

^' died and left no sign" 

of preparation to meet his dread ordeal. 

Nothing can reconcile us to, or sustain us un- 
der such a lot for ourselves and those we love, 
but the covenant of mercy with God, by Jesus 
Christ, our Saviour, Resurrection, and Life. In 
strong contrast to the melancholy picture, comes 
the light of promise. " The mercy of the Lord is 



OF THE PROMISE. 167 

from everlasting to everlasting upon them that 
fear him, and his righteousness unto children's 
children; to such as keep his covenant, and to 
those that remember his commandments to do 
them" (Psalms ciii. 15 — 18). Convinced of the 
world's insufficiency; more deeply convinced of 
the corrupting guilt, which has made us children 
of wrath by reason of sin ; earnest after restora- 
tion to holiness and a perfect enjoyment of God, 
you have embraced this covenant ; you have called 
God your Father, and asked Him to take you 
among the number of his children, assured, that 
being His in so gracious a relation, " all your 
concerns will be his also ; and all have been re- 
signed to him, that they may be wisely adminis- 
tered by him, and incomparably better blessings 
bestowed and secured, than any which the most 
afflictive Providence can remove."^ 

As a sincere, believing, penitent Christian, you 

* Doddridge. 



168 CHILDREN INCLUDED 

have desired that your heavenly Father wiDuld 
deal with you as is best for his own glory, in your 
sanctification for heaven; and give, withhold, or 
take away, according to his all-wise, ever faithful, 
fatherly will. Your treasure is in heaven, and 
your heart is fixed where your treasure is laid up, 
so that the events of this life are valuable to you, 
only as they affect your eternal interests; and, as 
we have had occasion more than once to say, you 
cannot, or should not, be surprised at being call- 
ed to affliction, which is the baptism of your Elder 
Brother, the discipline of your heavenly Father, 
and the foretold experience of all his children. 

With yourself, by this covenant, it was your 
high and most cherished privilege to consider your 
offspring included ; for " his mercy is unto chil- 
dren's children;" as the Lord said to Abra- 
ham, " I will establish my covenant between me 
and thee, and between thee and thy seed after 
thee, in their generations, for an everlasting cove- 
nant, to be a God unto thee and thy seed after 



BY THE COVENAiVT. 169 

thee" (Gen. xvii. 7); or, by the apostle to the 
gaoler at Philippi, " Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house" 
(Acts xvi. 31). It would have been an unspeak- 
able grief to you, if you could not have brought 
your children vi^ith you to the Lord. Like the 
mother of Samuel, you may have asked your child 
of the Lord, and long before its birth, dedicated it 
to him (1 Sam. i. 11). When it was born, you 
rejoiced to think that you had gotten a child from 
the Lord (Gen. iv. 1), and were happy in the belief 
that he had intrusted it to you, as a rich treasure^ 
to be kept and watched over for his praise; say- 
ing with pious, grateful Hannah, " For this child 
I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition 
which I asked of him; therefore, also, I have lent 
him to the Lord ; as long as he liveth he shall be 
lent unto the Lord " (1 Sam. i. 27, 28). Your 
prayer was, that the little one, like John, the Fore* 
runner (Luke i. 15), and like John's greater Mas- 
ter (Is. xhx. 1), might be called and sanctified 
p 



170 THE PROMISE 

from the womb. Often have you knelt by the 
cradle side, or sat, holding your darling m your 
arms, pleading, with an earnestness which would 
not be denied, that He, in whom is your trust, 
would take the young life under his direction and 
overshadowing wings. Often have you asked 
grace to prepare the babe, through its growing 
years, by instruction, example, and salutary re- 
straintj for an immortal blessedness. Often have 
you shuddered at the evil which is in the world, 
lest it might be led astray from the path of life, 
and end its mortal course miserably. Often have 
you thought, that, rather than see it grow up in 
shame, profligacy, or hardened impenitence, you 
would give it back, its dust to earth, and its spirit 
to God. 

Now, my beloved mourning friend, has the co- 
venant failed? Has God not kept his engage- 
ment, or have you drawn back from yours? 
Your child has been taken from you only by the 
hand of Him, to whom vou dedicated it. Hannah 



FOR THE CHILD FULFILLED. 171 

lent her child to the Lord, that he might serve be- 
fore the Lord in Shiloh, where was his tabernacle; 
your child has been taken to serve before the Lord 
within the eternal Temple of the heavenly Jerusa- 
lem. The great promise of the covenant for your 
child has been fulfilled ; it is saved ; it is in the 
bosom of the Father ; it has been called and sanc- 
tified as from the womb; and you have had the 
inestimable privilege, the highest honour which a 
parent can have, of giving from the fruit of your 
body, a glorified, immortal chorister and priest 
and king, to swell the heavenly song, and advance 
the heavenly worship. You have not been per- 
mitted to discharge the office of its instructor and 
guardian, which, from your knowledge of your 
own frailty, you know would have been imper- 
fectly filled ; but God has done it for you ; ac- 
comphshed, in a few days, what your whole life 
might have failed to secure, and brought the 
babe, without the pangs of regeneration, the sor- 
rows of repentance, the crucifixion of self-denial, 



172 THE COVENANT KEPT. 

or the fightings of faith against temptation, to the 
blissful goal where you desired, yet might have 
failed, to bring it. You doubted not His truth, 
when you made the covenant with him; will you 
doubt Him now that He has kept it, in the eternal 
redemption of the child you mourn ? 



EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 



THE CONSOLATION. 



CHAPTER XI. 

II. The little one escaped from pain. III. The little one 
forever free from sin. IV. The little one perfect in 
the knowledge of God. To go and be with Christ 
and his little ones is far better. The author's parting 
words. 

II. The little one has escaped from all pain. 

The Reformed Church, in her prayer at the 
baptism of children, calls " this life nothing but a 
continual death." For we are born under sen- 
tence of death, and life is one long disease from 
the cradle to the grave. It is very rarely, that 
any one goes through his pilgrimage, without 
much acute suffering, and the mortal agony is 
sure to come. How many, w^hose beginning is 
p2 



174 THIS LIFE 

of healthful promise, develope, as they grow, the 
seeds of constitutional suffering, perhaps, specially 
inherited from their parents! Some dwindle into 
helpless idiocy; some grow blind, or deaf, or 
dumb; some are consumptive, or asthmatic, or 
dropsical ; some are crippled by weakness or ac- 
cident ; so that all their days are a torture and bur- 
den, not only to themselves, but also to the friends 
who look upon them and nurse them. 

If they escape such suffering, they are often 
weary, exposed to heat and storm and cold, com- 
pelled to make arduous journeys, or to labour 
hardly for a pittance; it may be, imprisoned, or 
exiled, or famJshed. Who would think, if they 
knew not the fact, that the old man tottering on 
his staff, his limbs rheumatic or gouty, his back 
bent, his brow seamed with deep wrinkles, his 
eyes dim, his ears dull, his hand tremulous, his 
voice broken and faint, was once a fair-browed, 
leaping, sportive, laughter-tongued child? We 
pity him for the long journey he has made, and 



A CONTINUAL DEATH. 175 

cannot with kindness regret when it comes to an 
end. He has lost all the relish of his enjoy- 
ments, and retains but the consequences of infir- 
mity, imprudence, toil or excess. Is it right to 
mourn, that the departed little one did not pass 
through the same experience to reach the same 
end, which it attained in a few days? 

You hoped better things for your child, pictured 
to yourself its rosy youth, its vigorous manhood, 
its green old age; the hope was natural, but had 
it any warrant? All the while it was with you, 
you were anxious lest, being well, it might be- 
come sick ; a chill from an open window, a sun- 
stroke, a surfeit, a fall, infection, contagion, epide« 
mic, were all dreaded ; you held it to your bosom, 
covered it at night, allowed it to play, fearfully 
apprehensive, for you knew not what an hour 
might bring upon it. When it was sick, how- 
painful was it to see its flushed or pale cheek, its 
spasmodic contractions, and its little eye, appealing 
for relief no mortal kindness or skill could afford ; 



176 THE LITTLE ONE 

to hear its cries, its meanings even in the sleep 
which was not rest; to feel the hot brow, the gal- 
loping pulse, or the beat of the current growing 
less and less; until, as death brought his cruel 
work to a close, you well nigh prayed that the 
struggle might cease, and its sufferings be over, 
forever. 

Now its pains are all over. The little body is 
sleeping hushed and calm, returning to dust, that 
it may be raised incorruptible, immortal, beautiful, 
among those happy mansions, where " the inhabi- 
tant shall no more say, I am sick" (Is. xxxiii. 24) ; 
where they ''hunger no more, neither thirst any 
more," where " the sun doth not light upon them, 
nor any heat," neither shall there be any more 
pain, "for the former things have passed away;" 
" and the Lamb, which is in the midst of the 
throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto 
living fountains of waters ; and God shall wipe 
away all tears from their eyes" (Rev. vii. 16, 17; 
xxi. 4). How earnestly did you implore the phy- 



IN IMMORTAL HEALTH. 177 

sician to search for some means of healing the 
disease, and relieving the pain of your precious 
sufferer ! How did you pray God to bless the re- 
medies used ! Yet human skill, however then bless- 
ed with success, could have given no security, no 
sovereign prophylactic against future illness. But 
the Great, the Good Physician, who healed the 
sick and lame and blind and leprous with his touch, 
nay, stood beside the tomb. Conqueror of Death, 
the Resurrection and the Life, has heard your 
prayer, and restored your little one to immortal 
health and beauty, bearing it in the arms of his 
holy angels to a blessed clime, where all is new 
and bright and serene and full of joy, that never 
again it might know the ills of mortal being. 
Very sweet was it for you to look upon your 
child, laughing in your arms, or playing with its 
fellows on the shaded sod and among the flowers ; 
but now it is rejoicing on its heavenly Father's 
bosom, or under the Tree of Life, in the sinless, 
thornless, unfading Paradise of the redeemed. 



178 THE CONFLICT 

Would you call it back to the sick-bed, the uncer- 
tain life, the certain death, which must await it 
here ? Would you replace the crown encircling its 
brow by wrinkles and gray hairs, hush its glad 
song for the sighing, the groaning, the nioans of 
earth? Would you take it from the arms of God, 
even to your own ? Would you ask that it might 
return, to become itself a parent, and suffer the 
anguish which is now tearing your heart-strings? 
No, Christian parent, you loved your child, you 
love it still too well ! 

III. The little one is forever free from sin. 

Sin is the greatest of all a Christian's troubles, 
because not only the occasion but the provocation 
of them. The sorrows, which it brings upon him, 
are the most distressing, from the fact that they 
prove the displeasure of his Maker. His great 
hope for eternity is perfect deliverance from sin ; 
Christ is most precious to him as the Saviour from 
sin; the Holy Ghost most desired as the Sancti- 
fier of his sinful nature ; and he longs for the hour 



WITH SIN. 179 

when he shall serve God without any admixture 
of error or fault. But so long as he is on earth, 
sin within him and temptation without him, keep 
him in constant trouble. The denial of his carnal 
tendencies, can be compared only to crucifixion; 
there is no moment when he must not watch and 
pray ; nay, he must wrestle in hard fight, with in- 
visible, mighty, ever-active, subtle and most ma- 
licious enemies, who, but for omnipotent succour, 
would certainly overcome and destroy him. " 0, 
wretched man that I am!" exclaimed even the 
strong apostle Paul, " who shall deliver me from 
the body of this death?" (Rom. vii. 24.) The 
early church would have been in despair, but for 
the assurance, that "the God of peace would short- 
ly bruise Satan under their feet" (Rom. xvi. 20). 
The promise to faith is victory over the world (1 
John V. 4). The crown of life will be given to 
him, who, having " endured hardness as a good 
soldier of Jesus Christ" (2 Tim. ii. 3), shall have 
overcome even as Christ overcame (Rev. iii. 21). 



180 PERILS OF LIFE. 

With all the exceeding great and precious pro- 
mises of our Lord and Saviour, what anxiety and 
fear and trembling are in our hearts, lest we 
should come short at last! (Heb. iv. 1.) Through 
what tribulation must we not pass, in our danger- 
thronged pilgrimage, before, purified as it were 
by fire, we can enter the kingdom of God ! (Acts 
xiv. 22.) 

Had the little one lived to make a journey as 
long as ours, its experience would have been the 
same, perhaps, far worse. The seeds, the occa- 
sions of sin were in its human nature. It would 
have transgressed the commandments of God, and 
have been in peril of eternal death ; the flesh 
would have urged it, the world tempted it, Satan 
assailed and deceived it, for aught you knowy 
fatally. Your own sinfulness and infirmity for 
good, proves your child, as well as yourself, to 
have been of a fallen family. You may have pro- 
mised to yourself, every possible pains and prayer 
and prudence, to train it up for God ; and, certain- 



PARENTAL DISAPPOINTMENTS. 181 

]y His promises are very strong to sincere, prayer- 
ful, hard-working faith; but, with all your con- 
sciousness of repeated failures and oft-broken 
vows, can you be sure that your faith woxild 
have been so firm and zealous, as to secure the 
blessing? Adam had his Cain, Noah his Ham, 
Abraham his Ishmael, Isaac his Esau, Jacob more 
than one ingrate, Aaron his Nadab and Abihu, 
Eli his Hophni and Phinehas, Samuel his Joel 
and Abiah, David his Absalom, and Josiah his 
Jehoiakim ; nor are we without daily instances of 
profligate children breaking the hearts of pious 
parents, and bringing down their gray hairs with 
sorrow to the grave. It is trying to think, that 
such could possibly be the issue of a life so dear 
and promising as that of your departed little one; 
yet such, you see, it might have been, even if you 
had all the faith and spiritual advantage of those 
sainted parents we have named. Think of the 
deeper anguish you might suffer, from the profli- 
gacy, the disgrace, the thankless hard-heartedness, 
a 



182 A CONTRAST. 

the hopeless death, of a babe now safe in glory, 
had it been left here to grow up in sin ! O, what 
bitter sorrow was that of Aaron, when his impious 
sons were smitten down, and he could do nothing 
but "hold his peace!" (Lev. x. 3.) What de- 
solate despair was in the cry of David, " O, my 
son Absalom ! My son, my son Absalom ! Would 
God I had died for thee, O, Absalom my son, my 
son!" (2 Sam. xviii. 33.) But, what a contrast 
of pious, hopeful resignation, was the spirit of Da- 
vid, when the little child of Bathsheba, though the 
child of his sin, was taken from him : " While the 
child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, 
who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, 
that the child may live? But, now he is dead, 
wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back 
again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return 
to me !" (2 Sam. xii. 22, 23.) The full-grown, 
beautiful, darling, but wicked Absalom, died with- 
out hope; the separation, so far as mortal could 
see, was eternal ; the little child, as vet uncon^ 



THE LITTLE ONE SAFE. 183 

demned for actual sin, was safe, where a pious 
faith would bring his father again to his company. 
Your little one is safe, safe from the pollutions 
of the flesh, safe from the temptations of the world, 
safe from the malice of Satan ; safe from sin, from 
guilt, from eternal death ; safe in the holy arms of 
Jesus, singing a better song than ever saint sung 
on earth, without a stain upon its conscience, a 
tear in its eye, or a shadow on its soul ; washed 
in the Saviour's blood; clothed in a purer, more 
lustrous garment than little Samuel's linen ephod, 
the fine linen of the saints, the righteousness of 
Jesus ; the palm of victory in the hand that never 
struck a blow, a crown upon the head without a 
scar, and sweeter hosannas on its pure hps, than 
those that rung around the delighted Saviour 
within the temple below; safe in bhss, safe in 
holiness, safe now, and safe forever! The least 
in that kingdom is greater than the greatest 
here. Would you bring the holy, happy little 
one back to earth, from that sinless home, when 



184 EDUCATION OF 

your earnest prayer was that it might be brought 
by the Saviour's grace, and your best hope for 
yourself that you may be also? No, believing 
mourner, your child is gone before and entered 
the inheritance; some space remains for you to 
travel ; but gird up your loins, and go to seek the 
beloved, who cannot return to you ! 

IV. The little one is now perfect in the know- 
ledge of God. 

The education of children is the most important, 
delightful, yet anxious duty of Christian parents. 
To train them up in useful religious knowledge 
for an honourable life here, and eternal life here- 
after, requires the most watchful, patient, skilful 
care; because, in early years, the elements of 
adult character are gathered, and principles of fu- 
ture action are established. No pious parent can 
contemplate the progress of a child towards ma- 
turity without deep solicitude. How many obsta- 
cles impede the discharge of this sacred office? 
The father has the cares of his business upon him; 



CHILDREN DIFFICULT. 185 

the mother of her family and household. Not a 
few are conscious of wanting the information, or 
tact, or time, to teach aright. They are obliged 
to call in the aid of other teachers, perhaps to send 
the child away from them, where they may have 
advantages not enjoyed at home. 

The affairs of life, and the accomplishment of 
manners, require much study and attention. Re- 
ligion, the most important of all, if not thrust into 
the back ground, has but a small part of the child's 
thoughts. The very art, which is the key of 
knowledge, opens, in hurtful books, stores of cor- 
ruption. The graceful refinements which adorn 
the body and the mind for a position in society, 
expose to the temptations of worldliness. The 
companionship, necessary to success, is full of 
dangerous associations. The pious parent is ha- 
rassed by conflicting extremes ; and, after the ut- 
most pains, liable to severe disappointments, for 
both time and eternity. How often has your 
prayer been put up for grace to guide your child 
a2 



186 GOD THE BEST TEACHER, 

safely through the mazes of the world to the in- 
heritance of the righteous ? 

Your prayer has been heard. God has relieved 
you of your office, and become, in his holy house, 
your child's best Teacher. Your little one, now, 
needs no instruction to provide for the wants of this 
life, to guard against the dishonesties of men, or to 
win the uncertain favour of a false world ; no painful 
studies and restraints to secure laborious science; 
no chastisements to check the yet pliant passion, 
or to make folly timely bitter. It has gone to a 
world, where they neither hunger nor thirst; 
where the sweat of toil is never on the brow, nor 
the weight of care upon the brain ; where, in the 
society of the holy blessed, there is none to tempt, 
defraud, or cajole; where the only accomplish- 
ment is holiness, and the only business praise. 

God is now your little one's Teacher, and you 
should think of it as gone to the best school, to 
learn the best truth, and enter upon the best pur- 



HEAVEN THE BEST SCHOOL. 187 

suits. It has attained, what you so earnestly hope 
to attain, the sight of God face to face. 

None can teach Uke God, for he knows the spi- 
rit he has made, and declares, by immediate com- 
munication, what is dimly revealed here through 
the shadowed glass of his mediate revelations. The 
angels, and the redeemed spirits of just men made 
perfect, are the companions and fellow students of 
your little one. All heaven, all creation, are open 
for your child's learning; and God employs its 
glorified powers in services expressly adapted to 
expand them and fill them with delight. There is 
now no sin to cloud its perceptions, to warp its 
judgment, or distract its thoughts. Babe as it 
was when it left this world a little while since, 
your child is wiser now than all the academies, 
and universities, and learned societies, in the 
world ; for it knows Hor, whose chain of effect 
and cause it is the proper business of science to 
trace, even the First, Great, Only Cause of all. Its 
life is now the life of angels who excel in strength, 



188 AT THE FEET OF JESUS, 

admiring with the cheruhim, burning among the 
seraphim, and glorifying, like a mirror reflecting 
light, the Wisdom upon the throne. There is a 

crowd of little ones around Jesus, Himself a Holy 

r 

Child; they are at his feet, looking up into his di- 
vine face, listening to his gracious w^ords, receiving 
his constant benedictions, and uttering his un- 
ceasing praise; your child is among them. 

Yet is its immortality only begun ; its know- 
ledge, though perfect in kind, is ever growing in 
degree : changed from glory to glory, its happy 
spirit will eternally expand in ail that constitutes 
the excellence of spiritual being, love, knowledge, 
holiness, and joy. 

Would you bring the lost, the saved one, back to 
the weakness of infancy ; the waywardness and 
pains of childhood; the errors, the follies of youth ; 
the mistakes and the struggles of manhood ; the 
second childhood and imbeciUty of age? Can you 
not spare your child for a few years, to be edu- 
cated in such a school, by such a Teacher, with 



PARTING WORDS. 189 

such companions? Would you, could you, call 
the white-robed chorister from among his rejoicing 
fellows, chaunting hallelujahs to the glorified ear 
of Christ? No, far rather strive to follow, faintly 
and at as long an interval, as you must amidst 
the impediments of earth, and sin, and infirmity, 
its celestial progress, becoming yourself, by imita- 
tion of Jesus, more and more like a little child ; 
until, in some bright hour, Jesus shall send his 
angel for you, and make you as happy, holy, 
glorious as your child. 



Beloved friends, in sympathy with whose sor- 
rows these pages have been written, not without 
prayer and searching of the Scriptures, by one 
who desires humbly to call himself your servant, 
"brother and companion in tribulation, and in the 
patience and kingdom of Jesus Christ ;" your Mas- 
ter, " whose I am and whom I serve," has said to 
you. 

Suffer little children to come unto me ! 



190 PARTING WORDS. 

O forbid them not^ by one repining thought, one 
vain regret, one unbelieving fear ! Weep, for Je- 
sus wept ; but sorrow not without hope : they sleep 
in Jesus ; they shall be raised from the dust incor- 
ruptible, made like to Christ's most glorious body, 
and enter the fulness of redemption. Weep, for 
nature must have relief; but weep in faith on the 
bosom of Him, who, from the cross, comforted his 
only parent; yet a little while and He will take 
you up, where you shall weep no more. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus ! Amen. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES, 



ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 



EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 

GEO. W. BETHUNE. 

Within her downy cradle there lay a little child, 
And a group of hovering angels unseen upon her 

smiled ; 
A strife arose among them, a loving, holy strife, 
Which should shed the richest blessing over the 

new-born life. 

One breathed upon her features, and the babe in 
beauty grew, 

With a cheek like morning's blushes, and an eye 
of azure hue ; 

Till every one who saw her, were thankful for the 
sight 

Of a face so sweet and radiant with ever fresh de- 
light. 



192 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Another gave her accents, and a voice as musical 
As a spring bird's joyous carol, or a rippling 

streamlet's fall ; 
Till all who heard her laughing, or her words of 

childish grace, 
Loved as much to hsten to her, as to look upon 

her face. 

Another brought from heaven a clear and gentle 
mind, 

And within the lovely casket the precious gem en- 
shrined ; 

Till all who knew her wondered, that God should 
be so good, 

As to bless with such a spirit our desert world and 
rude. 

Thus did she grow in beauty, in melody and truth. 
The budding of her childhood just opening into 

youth ; 
And to our hearts yet dearer, every moment than 

before, 
She became, though we thought fondly, heart 

could not love her more. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 193 

Then out-spake another angel, nobler, brighter 

than the rest, 
As with strong arm, but tender, he caught her to 

his breast : 
^' Ye have made her all too lovely for a child of 

mortal race. 
But no shade of human sorrow shall darken o'er 

her face. 

" Ye have tuned to gladness only the accents of 

her tongue, 
And no wail of human anguish shall from her lips 

be wrung ; 
Nor shall the soul that shineth so purely from 

within 
Her form of earth-born frailty, ever know the taint 

of sin. 

" Lulled in my faithful bosom, I will bear her far 

away. 
Where there is no sin nor anguish, nor sorrow, 

nor decay ; 
And mine a boon more glorious than all your gifts 

shall be — 
Lo ! I crown her happy spirit with immortality !" 



194 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Then on his heart our darling yielded up her gen- 
tle breath. 

For the stronger, brighter angel, who loved her 
best, was Death ! 



AN EXPOSTULATION WITH ONE WHO 
PITIED A DYING CHILD. 

CAROMAIA. 

You "pity her?" Oh! why 
Pity the tender child, 
So patient and so mild, 
Laid early down to die ? 
Gentle and kind the mission 
Of Death, the good physician. 
Who at her side stands nigh. 

She looks upon his brow. 
And reads there very plain, 
How he will ease her pain. 
And make her well ; and how 
He'll bear her spirit whither 
It never more can wither. 
As it is drooping now. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 195 

Early she is laid down ; 
Before life's morning-smile, 
Joyful, and free from guile, 
Was darkened by a frown ; 
Early she leaves all sorrow; 
Early she bids good-morrow 
To heaven, and harp, and crown. 

You pity her ? Why so 7 
Her heart has never grieved. 
Has never been deceived. 
Has never dreamed of wo ; 
Why keep her here to suffer. 
To know the earth much rougher. 
Than childhood e'er can know? 

Pity^ you should not say. 
To those whom God has called 
To join the disenthralled. 
The saints of upper day ; 
Who live at home in heaven, 
W^here sins are all forgiven. 
And tears all wiped away ! 



196 CONSOLATORY VERSES^ 

But pity the bereft, 

Whose tearful eyes are dim. 

Nor see the Love of Him 

Who has their hearts-strings cleft ; 

Who in the night awaken. 

To murmur for joys taken, 

And muse o'er sorrov/s left. 

Who think they yet must brave 
Many a giant storm, 
Rearing his dismal form. 
Over life's changeful wave ! 
Such, such are to be pitied. 
Not they who are committed 
To a calm, early grave. 

I would not wish to reap 
Ere I have scattered seeds, 
Or done appointed deeds ; 
Yet I could almost weep. 
That I were not now dying 
As that sweet child is, lying 
In my last happy sleep ! 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 197 

ON A FAIR INFANT. 

MILTON. 

O fairest flower, no sooner shown than blasted, 
Soft, silken primrose, fading timelessly. 

Summer's chief honour, if thou hadst outlasted 
Bleak Winter's force that made thy blossom 

dry; 
For he, being amorous on that lovely dye 

That did thy cheek envermeil, thought to kiss. 

But killed, alas ! and then bewailed his fatal bliss. 

Yet can I not persuade me thou art dead. 

Or that thy corse corrupts in earth's dark womb, 

Or that thy beauties lie in wormy bed. 
Hid from the world in a low delved tomb, 
Could Heaven, for pity, thee so strictly doom? 

Oh, no ! for something in thy face did shine 

Above mortality, that showed thou wast divine. 

Ah ! wert thou of the golden-winged host, 
Who, having clad thyself in human weed, 

To earth from thy prefixed seat didst post. 
And after short abode fly back with speed. 
As if to show what creatures heaven doth breed ; 

r2 



198 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Thereby to set the hearts of men on fire. 
To scorn the sordid world, and unto heaven as- 
pire. 

But, oh ! why didst thou not stay here below ? 
To bless us with thy heaven-loved innocence, 

To slake his wrath whom sin hath made our foe. 
To turn swift-rushing black Perdition hence, 
Or drive away the slaughtering Pestilence, 

To stand 'twixt us and our deserved smart ? 

But thou canst best perform that office where thou 
art. 

Then thou, the mother of so sweet a child. 
Her false- imagined loss cease to lament, 

x\nd wisely think to curb thy sorrows wild ; 
Think what a present thou to God has sent. 
And render him with patience what he lent ; 

This, if thou do, he will an offspring give. 

That, till the world's last end, shall make thy name 
to live. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 199 

HYMN TO NIGHT. 

GEO. W. BETHUNE. 

Yes ! bear them to their rest ; 
The rosy babe tired with the glare of day, 
The prattler fall'n asleep ev'n in his play ; 

Clasp them to thy soft breast, 
O Night, 
Bless them in dreams with a deep-hushed delight ! 

Yet must they wake again ; 
Wake soon to all the bitterness of life, 
The pang of sorrow, the temptation strife, 

Aye, to the conscience — pain. 
O Night, 
Canst thou not take with them a longer flight ? 

Canst thou not bear thiem far, 
Ev'n now all innocent, before they know 
The taint of sin, its consequence of wo. 

The world's distracting jar, 
O Night, 
To some eternal, holier, happier height T 



200 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Canst thou not bear them up. 
Through star-lit skies, far from this planet dim 
And sorrowful, ev'n while they sleep, to Him, 

Who drank for us the cup, 
O Night, 
The cup of wrath for souls in faith contrite? 

To Him, for them who slept 
A babe all lowly on his mother's knee, 
And, from that hour to cross-crowned Calvary, 
In all our sorrows wept, 
O Night, 
That on our souls might dawn heaven's cheering 
light? 

Go lay their little heads 
Close to that human breast, with love divine 
Deep beating ; while His arms immortal twine 
Around them as He sheds, 
O Night, 
On them a brother's grace of God's own boundless 
might* 

Let them, immortal, wake 
Among the deathless flowers of Paradise, 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 201 

Where angels' songs of welcome with surprise 
This their last sleep may break ; ~ 
O Night, 
And to celestial joys their kindred souls invite. 

There can come no sorrow ; 
The brow shall know no shade, the eye no tears; 
Forever young through heaven's eternal years 
In one unfading morrow, 
O Night, 
Nor sin, nor age, nor pain, their cherub beauty 
blight. 

Would we could sleep as they 
So stainless and so calm ; at rest with thee. 
And only wake in immortality. 

Bear us with them away, 
O Night, 
To that, eternal, holier, happier height. 



ON THE DEATH OF AN INFANT. 

She glanced into our world, to see 
A sample of our misery ; 
Then turned away her languid eye 
To drop a tear or two, and die. 



^02 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

She tasted of life's bitter cup, 
Refused to drink the portion up ; 
But turned her little head aside, 
Disgusted with the taste, and died. 

She listen'd for a while to hear 

Our mortal griefs, then turned her ear 

To angel harps and songs, and cried 

To join their notes celestial, sighed, and died. 

Sweet babe no niore, but angel now, 

Before the throne behold her bow, 

Her soul enlarged to angel size, 

Joins in the triumph of the skies ; 

Adores the God that brought her there. 

Without a wish, without a care ; 

That washed her soul in Calvary's stream : 

That shortened life's distressing dream. 

Short pain, short grief, dear babe, was thine, 

Now joys eternal and divine. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 203 

THE DYING. 

THOMAS HOOD. 

" We watched her breathing through the nighty 

Her breathing soft and low, 
As in her breast the wave of life 

Kept heaving to and fro. 

" So silently we seemed to speak. 

So slowly moved about. 
As we had lent her half our powers 

To eke her living out. 

" Our very hopes belied our fears, 

Our fears our hopes belied — 
We thought her dying when she slept. 

And sleeping when she died. 

" For when the morn came dim and sadj 

And chill with early showers. 
Her quiet eyelids closed — she had 

Another morn than ours." 



S04 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 



LITTLE CHILDREN. 

" The smallest planet is nearest the sun. Ye stand 
nearest to God, ye little ones.''^ 

Nearest to God in childhood ! It is true. 

For then the heart wears not the deepened stain 
That after years bear to it ; — morn's sweet dew 

Has not yet sought in the blue sky, again. 
Its first fair home ; — Hope's sunshine is unshaded, 
Joy's opening blossoms have not drooped or faded; 
Life's verdant paths have not been sadly trod 
By weary feet ! — the heart is near to God. 

Yes, ye are near to God, ye little ones ! 

Nearer than those whose bright eyes have 
grown dim 
With bitter tears — to whose sad heart there comes 

No day unmarked by suffering and sin. 
Ye have not found, amid earth's blooming bowers. 
Shadows with sunbeams blended, thorns with flow- 
ers; 
Ye sport in sinless mirth on the green sod 
'Neath the blue sky; — yes, ye are near to God. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 205 

And near are ye to human hearts — more near 

Than aught else can be ; for the soul will lovOj 
E'en in the shadows of its dwelling here, 

Aught that reminds it of its home above. 
Ye whisper to us of a sky unclouded — 
Of joy, by grief's dark mantle ne'er enshrouded — 
Of paths by mortal footstep never trod ; 
Blessings upon you! — Ye are near to God. 



THE FAREWELL TO THE DEAD. 

MRS. HEMANS. 

Come near ! — ere yet the dust 
Soil the bright paleness of the settled brow, 
Look on your brother and embrace him now, 

In still and solemn trust ! 
Come near ! — once more let kindred lips be pressed 
On his cold check ; then bear him to his rest ! 

Look yet on this young t'ace ! 
What shall the beauty from amongst us gone. 
Leave of its image, even where most it shone, 

Gladdening its hearth and race? 



206 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Dim grows the semblance on man's heart im- 
pressed — 
Come near, and bear the beautiful to rest. 

Ye weep, and it is well ! 
For tears befit earth's partings ! — Yesterday 
Song was upon the lips of this pale clay. 

And sunshine seemed to dwell 
Where'er he moved — the welcome and the blessed ! 
Now gaze ! and bear the silent unto rest ! 

Look yet on him, whose eye 
Meets yours no more, in sadness or in mirth I 
Was he not fair amidst the sons of earth. 

The beings born to die ? 
— But not where death has power may love be 

blessed — 
Come near ! and bear ye the beloved to rest ! 

How may the mother's heart 
Dwell on her son, and dare to hope again? 
The spring's rich promise hath been given in vain, 

The lovely must depart ! 
Is he not gone, our brightest and our best ? 
Come near ! and bear the early-called to rest ! 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 207 

Look on him ! is he laid 
To slumber from the harvest or the chase? 
— Too still and sad the smile upon his face, 

Yet that, even that, must fade ! 
Death holds not long unchanged his fairest guest, 
Come near ! and bear the mortal to his rest ! 

His voice of mirth had ceased 
Amidst the vineyards ! there is left no place 
For him whose dust receives your vain embrace, 

At the gay bridal feast ! 
Earth must take earth to moulder on her breast ; 
Come near ! weep o'er him ! bear him to his rest ! 

Yet mourn ye not as they 
Whose spirit's light is quenched! — for him the 

past 
Is sealed. He may not fall, he may not cast 

His birthright's hope away ! 
All is not here of our beloved and blessed — 
— Leave ye the sleeper with his God to rest ! 



208 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

THE JOY OF THE DEAD. 

GILES FLETCHER. 

No sorrow now hangs clouding on their brow, 
No bloodless malady impales their face. 
No age drops on their hairs his silver snow. 
No nakedness their bodies doth embrace, 
No poverty themselves and theirs disgrace; 
No fear of death the joy of life devours. 
No unchaste sleep the precious night deflours. 
No loss, no grief, no change, wait on their winged 
hours, 

And if a sullen cloud, as sad as night. 
In which the sun may seem embodied, 
Deprived of all his dross, we see so white, ' 
Burning in melting gold his watery head. 
Or round with ivory edges silvered ; 
What lustre superexcellent will He 
Lighten on those that shall his sunshine see. 
In that all-glorious court in which all glories be ! 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 209 

O, STAY THOSE TEARS. 

ANDREWS NORTON. 

O, stay thy tears ! for they are blest 

Whose days are past; whose toil is done* 

Here midnight care disturbs our rest ; 
Here sorrow dims the noonday sun. 

For labouring virtue's anxious toil, 

For patient sorrow's stifled sigh, 
For faith that marks the conqueror's spoil. 

Heaven grants the recompense to die. 

How blest are they whose transient years. 
Pass like an evening meteor's flight ; 

Not dark with guilt, nor dim with tears ; 
Whose course is short, unclouded, bright. 

How cheerless were our lengthened way, 
Did heaven's own light not break the gloom; 

Stream downward from eternal day, 
And cast a glory round the tomb ! 

Then stay thy tears ; the blest above 
Have hailed a spirit's heavenly birth ; 



210 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Sung a new song of joy and love. 

And why should anguish reign on earth? 



WEEP NOT FOR HER! 

NOCTES AMBROSIAN^. 

Weep not for her ! Her span was like the sky. 

Whose thousand stars shine beautiful and bright; 
Like flowers, that know not what it is to die ; 
Like long-linked, shadeless months of polar 
light; 
Like music floating o'er a waveless lake. 
While echo answers from the flowery brake : 
Weep not for her ! 

Weep not for her! She died in early youth, 

Ere hope had lost its rich romantic hues; 
When human bosoms seemed the homes of truth, 
And earth still gleamed with beauty's radiant 
dews. 
Her summer prime waned not to days that freeze ; 
Her wine of life was run not to the lees : 
Weep not for her ! 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 211 

Weep not for her ! By fleet or slow decay, 
It never grieved her bosom's core to mark 
The playmates of her childhood wear away, 

Her prospects wither, or her hopes grow dark; 
Translated by her God, with spirit shriven. 
She passed, as 'twere in smiles, from earth to 
heaven ! 

Weep not for her ! 

Weep not for her ! It was not her's to feel 
The miseries that corrode amassing years, 

'Gainst dreams of baffled bliss the heart to steel. 
To wander sad down age's vale of tears, 

As whirl the wither'd leaves from friendship's tree, 

And on earth's wintry world alone to be: 
Weep not for her ! 

Weep not for her ! She is an angel now. 
And treads the sapphire floors of paradise ; 

All darkness wiped from, her refulgent brow, 
Sin, sorrow, suffering, banished from her eyes; 

Victorious over death, to her appear 

The vista'd joys of heaven's eternal year: 
Weep not for her ! 



S12 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Weep not for her ! Her memory is the shrine 
Of pleasant thougths, soft as the scent of flowers. 

Calm as on windless eve the sun's decline. 
Sweet as the song of birds among the bowers, 

Rich as the rainbow, with its hues of light. 

Pure as the moonshine of an autumn's night: 
Weep not for her ! 

Weep not for her ! There is no cause for wo ; 

But rather nerve the spirit, that it walk 
Unshrinking o'er the thorny paths below, 

And from earth's low defilements keep thee back; 
So, when a few fleet severing years have flown, 
She'll meet thee at heaven's gate, and lead thee on ! 
Weep not for her ! 



LOW SHE LIES, WHO BLEST OUR EYES. 

MRS. NORTON. 

Low she lies, who blest our eyes 

Through many a sunny day; 
She may not smile, she will not rise,— 

The life has past away! 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 213 

Yet there is a world of light beyond. 

Where we neither die nor sleep ; 
She is there, of whom our souls were fond^ — 

Then, wherefore do we weep? 

The heart is cold, whose thoughts were told 

In each glance of her glad bright eye; 
And she lies pale, who was so bright, 

She scarce seem'd made to die. 
Yet we know that her soul is happy now, 

Where the saints their calm watch keep ; 
That angels are crowning that fair young brow, — 

Then, wherefore do we weep? 

Her laughing voice made all rejoice. 

Who caught the happy sound ; 
There was a gladness in her very step. 

As it lightly touched the ground. 
The echoes of voice and step are gone, 

There is silence still and deep ; 
Yet we know that she sings by God's bright 
throne. 

Then, wherefore do we weep? 



214 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

The cheek's pale tinge, the lid's dark fringe, 

That lies like a shadow there, 
Were beautiful in the eyes of all — 

And her glossy golden hair ! 
But though that lid may never wake 

From its dark and dreamless sleep; 
She is gone where young hearts do not break,- 

Then wherefore do we weep? 

That world of light with joy is bright, 

This is a world of wo ; 
Shall we grieve that her soul has taken flight, 

Because we dwell below ? 
We will bury her under the mossy sod. 

And one long bright tress we'll keep; 
We have only given her back to God, — 

Then wherefore do we weep? 



TO AN INFANT IN HEAVEN. 

THOMAS WARD. 

Thou bright and star-like spirit ! 

That in my visions wild, 
I see, mid heaven's seraphic host — 

O ! canst thou be my child ? 



CO]\SOLATORY VERSES. 215 

Our hopes of thee were lofty, 

But have we cause to grieve ? 
O ! could our fondest, proudest wish 

A nobler fate conceive ? 

The little weeper, tearless, 

The sinner snatched from sin ; 
The babe to more than manhood grown. 

Ere childhood did begin. 

And I, thy earthly teacher. 

Would blush thy power to see ; 

Thou art to me a parent now, 
And I, a child to thee ! 

What bliss is born of sorrow, 

'Tis never sent in vain, — 
The heavenly surgeon maims to save. 

He gives no useless pain. 

Our God, to call us homeward. 

His only Son sent down. 
And now, still more to tempt our hearts, 

Has taken up our own. 



216 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

OH! SAY NOT 'TWERE A KEENER BLOW. 

T. H. BAYLY. 

Oh ! say not 'twere a keener blow. 

To lose a child of riper years; 
You cannot feel a mother's wo, 

You cannot dry a mother's tears; 
The girl who rears a sickly plant. 

Or cherishes a wounded dove. 
Will love them most while most they want 

The watchfulness of love! 

Time must have changed that fair young brow ! 

Time might have changed that spotless heart ! 
Years might have taught deceit, — but now 

In love's confiding dawn we part ! 
Ere pain or grief had wrought decay, 

My babe is cradled in the tomb ; 
Like some fair blossom torn away 

Before its perfect bloom. 

With thoughts of peril and of storm. 
We see a bark first touch the wave ; 

But distant seems the whirlwind's form. 
As distant — as an uifant's grave ! 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 217 

Though all is calm, that beauteous ship 
Must brave the whirlwind's rudest breath ; 

Though all is calm, that infant's lip 
Must meet the kiss of death ! 



DEATH OF THE FIRST-BORN. 

WILLIS GAYLORD CLARK. 

Young mother, he is gone ! 
His dimpled cheek no more will touch thy breast ; 

No more the music tone 
Float from his lips, to thine all fondly pressed ; 
His smile and happy laugh are lost to thee ; 
Earth must his mother and his pillow be. 

His was the morning hour. 
And he hath passed in beauty from the day, 

A bud, not yet a flower. 
Torn, in its sweetness, from the parent's spray ; 
The death-wind swept him to his soft repose, 
As frost, in spring-time, blights the early rose. 

T 



218 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Never on earth again 
Will his rich accents charm thy listening ear. 

Like some Eolian strain, 
Breathing at eventide serene and clear ; 
His voice is choked in dust, and on his eyes 
The unbroken seal of peace and silence lies. 

And from thy yearning heart, 
Whose inmost core was warm with love for him, 

A gladness must depart. 
And those kind eyes with many tears be dim ; 
While lonely memories, an unceasing train, 
Will turn the raptures of the past to pain. 

Yet mourner, while the day, 
Rolls like the darkness of a funeral by, 

And hope forbids one ray 
To stream athwart the grief-discoloured sky ; 
There breaks upon thy sorrow's evening gloom, 
A trembling lustre from beyond the tomb. 

'Tis from the better land ! 
There, bathed in radiance that around them springs, 

Thy loved one's wings expand ; 
As with the choiring cherubim he sings, 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 219 

And all the glory of that God can see. 

Who said, on earth, to children, " Come to me." 

Mother, thy child is blessed ; 
And though his presence may be lost to thee, 

And vacant leave thy breast, 
And miss'd a sweet load from thy parent knee ; 
Though tones familiar from thine ear have passed, 
Thou'lt meet thy first-born with his Lord at last. 



MY CHILD. 

REV. JOHN PIERPONT. 

I cannot make him dead ! 

His fair sunshiny head 
Is ever bounding round my study chair ; 

Yet, when my eyes, now dim 

With tears, I turn to him. 
The vision vanishes, — he is not there ! 

I walk my parlour floor, 

And through the open door, 
I hear a footfall on the chamber stair; 

I'm stepping toward the hall, 

To give the boy a call ; 
And then bethink me that — he is not there ! 



220 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

I thread the crowded street ; 

A satchelled lad I meet. 
With the same beaming eyes and coloured hair. 

And, as he's running by, 

Follow him with my eye, 
Scarcely believing that — he is not there! 

I know his face is hid 

Under the coffin lid; 
Closed are his eyes ; cdd is his forehead fair ; 

My hand that marble felt ; 

O'er it in prayer I knelt ; 
Yet my heart whispers that — he is not there! 

I cannot make him dead! 

When passing by the bed, 
So long watched over with parental care ; 

My spirit and my eye 

Seek it inquiringly, 
Before the thought comes that — he is not there ! 

When, at the cool, gray break 
Of day, from sleep I wake. 
With my first breathing of the morning air 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 221 

My soul goes up, with joy. 
To Him who gave my boy. 
Then comes the sad thought that — he is not there ! 

When at the day's calm close, 

Before we seek repose, 
f'm with his mother, offering up our prayer, 

Whate'er I may be sayings 

I am, in spirit, praying 
For our boy's spirit, though — he is not there ! 

Not there ! Where, then, is he ? 

The form I used to see 
Was but the raiment that he used to wear. 

The grave, that now doth press 

Upon that cast-off dress. 
Is but his wardrobe locked ; he is not there ! 

He lives ! — In all the past 

He lives ; nor, to the last. 
Of seeing him again will I despair ; 

In dreams I see him now ; 

And, on his angel brow, 
I see it written, " Thou shalt see me there P^ 
T 2 



222 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Yes, we all live to God ! 

Father, thy chastening rod 
So help us, thine afflicted ones, to bear, 

That, in the spirit land, 

Meeting at thy right hand, 
TVill be our heaven to find that — he \s there! 



ON THE DEATH OF A SON. 

W. B. O. PEABODY. 

•Tp Vp Vt- Vf- Vf- "T?- 

I never trusted to have lived 

To say farewell to thee. 
And almost said in agony, 

It ought not so to be ; 
I hoped that thou within the grave 

My weary head shouldst lay, 
And live beloved, when I was gone, 

For many a happy day. 

With trembling hand, I vainly tried 
Thy dying eyes to close ; 

And almost envied, in that hour, 
Thy calm and deep repose ; 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 223 

For I was left in loneliness, 

With pain and grief oppressed. 
And thou wast with the sainted, 

Where the weary are at rest. 

Yes, I am sad and weary now. 

But let me not repine. 
Because a spirit, loved so well. 

Is earlier blessed than mine ; 
My faith may darken as it will, 

I shall not much deplore. 
Since thou art where the ills of life 

Can never reach thee more. 



ON SEEING AN INFANT PREPARED FOR 
THE GRAVE. 

MRS. SIGOURNEY. 

Go to thy sleep, my child. 

Go to thy dreamless bed, — 
Gentle and undefiled. 

With blessings on thy head : — 



224 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Fresh roses in thy hand, 
Buds on thy pillow laid, 

Haste from this fearful land 
Where flowers so quickly fade. 

Before thy heart had learn'd 

In waywardness to stray, 
Before thy feet had turn'd 

The dark and downward way ; 
Ere sin had sear'd thy breast, 

Or sorrow woke the tear, 
Rise to thy home of rest 

In yon celestial sphere. 

Because thy smile was fair. 

Thy lip and eye so bright ; 
Because thy cradle-care 

Was such a fond delight, 
Shall Love with weak embrace 

Thy outspread wing detain? 
No ! — Angel, — seek thy place 

Amid the cherub train. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 225 

THE SPIRIT OF THE DEPARTED. 

T. K. HERVEY. 

* I know thou art gone to thy home of rest ; 
Then why should my soul be sad? 
I know thou art gone where the weary are blest ; 

And the mourner looks up and is glad ; 
Where Love has put off, in the land of its birth, 

The stain it had gathered in this, 
And Hope, the sweet singer that gladdened the 
earth. 
Lies asleep on the bosom of Bliss. 

I know thou art gone where thy forehead is starred 

With the beauty that dwelt in thy soul. 
Where the light of thy loveliness cannot be marred, 

Nor thy heart be flung back from its goal. 
1 know thou hast drunken of Lethe, that flows 

Through a land where they do not forget. 
That sheds over memory only repose, 

And takes from it only regret. 

This eye must be dark, that as yet is not dimmed, 
Ere again it may gaze upon thine ; 



226 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

But my heart has revealings of thee, and thy 
home, 

In many a token and sign : 
I never look up with a vow to the sky. 

But a light, like thy beauty, is there; 
And I hear a low murmur, like thine, in reply, 

When I pour out my spirit in prayer. 

In thy far away dwelling, wherever it be, 

I believe thou hast visions o^mine; 
And thy love, that made all things as music to me, 

I have not yet learned to resign : 
In the hush of the night — on the waste of the sea, 

Or alone wdth the breeze on the hill, 
I have ever a presence that whispers of thee, 

And my spirit lies down and is still. 

And though like a mourner that sits by a tomb, 

I am wrapped in a mantle of care ; 
Yet the grief of my bosom — O call it not gloom — 

Is not the black grief of despair. 
By sorrow revealed, as the stars are by night, 

Far off a bright vision appears. 
And Hope, like a rainbow, a creature of light, 

Is born, like the rainbow, in tears. 



CONSOLATOKY VERSES. 227 

THOUGHTS WHILE MAKING A GRAVE FOR 
A FIRST CHILD, BORN DEAD. 

N. P. WILLIS. 

Room, gentle flowers ! my child would pass to 

heaven ! 
Ye looked not for her yet with your soft eyes, 
O, watchful ushers at Death's narrow door ! 
But lo, while you delay to let her forth, 
Angels beyond, stay for her ! One long kiss 
From lips all pale with agony, and tears, 
Wrung after anguish had dried up with fire 
The eyes that wept them, were the cup of life 
Held as a welcome to her^ Weep, O mother ! 
But not that from this cup of bitterness 
A cherub of the sky has turned away. 

One look upon her face ere she depart ! 
My daughter ! it is soon to let thee go ! 
My daughter ! with thy birth has gushed a spring 
I knew not of; filling my heart with tears. 
And turning with strange tenderness to thee ! 
A love — O God, it seems so, which must flow 
Far as thou fleest, and 'twixt heaven and me, 
Henceforward, be a sweet and yearning chain, 
Drawing me after thee ! And so farewell ! 



228 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

'Tis a harsh world in which. afTectiori knows 
No place to treasure up its loved and lost, 
But the lone grave ! Thou, who so late was sleep- 
ing 
Warm in the close folds of a mother's heart. 
Scarce from her breast a single pulse receiving, 
But it was sent thee with some tender thought — 
How can I leave thee here! Alas, for man ! 
The herb in its humility may fall, 
And waste into the bright and genial air, 
While we by hands that ministered in life 
Nothing but love to us, are thrust away. 
The earth thrown in upon our just cold bosoms, 
And the warm sunshine trodden out forever ! 
Yet have I chosen for thy grave, my child, 
A bank where I have lain in summer hours, 
And thought how little it would seem like death, 
To sleep amid such loveliness. The brook 
Tripping wdth laughter down the rocky steps 
That lead us to thy bed, would still trip on. 
Breaking the dread hush of the mourners gone; 
The birds are never silent that build here. 
Trying to sing down the more vocal waters ; 
The slope is beautiful with moss and flowers ; 
And, far below, seen under arching leaves, 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 229 

Glitters the warm sun on the village spire. 
Pointing the living after thee ! And this 
Seems like a comfort; and, replacing now 
The flowers that have made room for thee, I go 
To whisper the same peace to her who lies 
Robbed of her child, and lonely. 'Tis the work 
Of many a dark hour, and of many a prayer^ 
To bring the heart back from an infant gone! 
Hope must give o'er, and busy fancy blot 
Its images from all the silent rooms, 
And every sight and sound familiar to her 
Undo its sweetest link ; and so, at last, 
The fountain that, once loosed, must flow forever, 
Will hide and waste in silence. When the smile 
Steals to her pallid lip again, and Spring 
Wakens its buds above thee, we will come, 
And, standing by thy music-haunted grave, 
Look on each other cheerfully and say, 
A child that we have loved is gone to heaven, 
And by this gate of flowers she passed away / 



230 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

THE GRAVE. 

JAMES G. BROOKS. 

The grave! the grave! oh, happy they 

Whom death hath seized in early spring, 
Who sleep within the house of clay, 

Gathered when life is blossoming. 
The grave ! the grave ! ah ! sorrow there 

May aim her many shafts in vain, 
And the dark spectre of despair 

Stalks powerless in that domain. 

They sleep ! the selfish and the vile, 

Can never more their feelings wring; 
Unkind deceit, and heartless guile, 

And envy, never more can sting; 
And love, which only lives to mourn. 

Can never blight their hearts again. 
For on the cold and senseless urn. 

His wasting mildews fall in vain. 

Then weep not, weep not for the dead, 
The cold clay doth not heed the tear; 

But weep for those who bow the head 
In life, when hope holds nothing dear; 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 2»31 

Weep for the living, who conceal 
The moody madness of the breast ; 

Mourn not the dead, they cannot feel ! 
Mourn not the dead, they are at rest ! 



I HEAR THY VOICE, O SPRING. 



W. J. PABODIE. 



I hear thy voice, O Spring, 
Its flute-like tones are floating through the air. 
Winning my soul with their wild ravishing, 

From earth's heart-wearying care. 

Divinely sweet thy song, — 
But yet methinks, as near the groves I pass. 
Low sighs on viewless wings are borne along. 

Tears gem the springing grass. 

For where are they, the young, 
The loved, the beautiful, who, when, thy voice, 
A year agone, along these valleys rung, 

Did hear thee and rejoice? 



232 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Thou seek'st for them in vain — 
No more they'll greet thee in thy joyous round ; 
Calmly they sleep beneath the murmuring main, 

Or moulder in the ground. 

Yet peace, my heart, be still ! 
Look upward to yon azure sky, and know 
To heavenlier music now their bosoms thrill. 

Where balmier breezes blow. 

For them hath bloomed a Spring, 
Whose flowers perennial deck a holier sod. 
Whose music is the song that seraphs sing, 

Whose light, the smile of God. 



A PSALM OF DEATH. 
The Reaper and the Flowers. 

H. W. LONGFELLOW. 

' ' Dear beauteous Death ! the jewel of the just, 
Shining nowhere but in the da k, 

What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust, 
Could we outlook that mark!" 

There is a Reaper, whose name is Death, 
And with his sickle keen, 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 233 

He reaps the bearded grain at a breath, 
And the flowers that grow between. 

^' Shall I have nought that is fair," saith he, 
" Have nought but the bearded grain ? 

Though the breath of these flowers is sweet to me, 
I will give them all back again." 

He gazed at the flowers with tearful eyes. 

He kissed their drooping leaves ; 
It was for the Lord of Paradise, 

He bound them in his sheaves. 

*' My Lord hath need of the flowerets gay," 

The Reaper said, and smiled : 
"Dear tokens of the earth are they, 

Where he was once a child." 

" They shall all bloom in fields of light. 

Transplanted by my care. 
And saints upon their garments white, 

These sacred blossoms wear." 
u 2 



234 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

And the mother gave, ia tears and pain, 

The flowers she most did love. 
But she knew she should find them all again, 

In the fields of light above. 

O, not in cruelty, not in wrath, 

The Reaper came that day : 
'Twas an angel visited the green earth, 

And took the flowers away. 



THE DYING BOY. 

J. H. BRIGHT. 

It must be sweet in childhood to give back 

The spirit to its Maker, ere the heart 

Has grown familiar with the paths of sin, 

And sown — to garner up its bitter fruits. 

I knew a boy, whose infant feet had trod 

Upon the blossoms of some seven springs. 

And when the eighth came round and called him 

out, 
To revel in its light, he turned away. 
And sought his chamber, to lie down and die. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 235 

'Twas night — he summoned his accustomed friends, 
And, on this wise, bestowed his last bequest : 

Mother, I'm dying now ! 
There's a deep suffocation in my breast, 
As if some heavy hand my bosom pressed ; 

And on my brow 

I feel the cold sweat stand : 
My lips grow dry and tremulous, and my breath 
Comes feebly up. Oh ! tell me, is this death ? 

Mother, your hand — 

Here — lay it on my wrist, 
And place the other thus beneath my head. 
And say, sweet mother, say, when I am dead. 

Shall I be missed? 

Never beside your knee, 
Shall I kneel down again at night to pray. 
Nor with the morning wake, and sing the lay 

You taught to me. 



236 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Oh ! at the time of prayer. 
When you look round, and see a vacant seat, 
You will not wait then for my coming feet — 

You'll miss me there. 

Father, I'm going home ! 
To the good home you spoke of — that blest land 
Where it is one bright summer always, and 

Storms never come. 

I must be happy then ; 
From pain and death you say I shall be free, 
That sickness never enters there, and we 

Shall meet again. 

Brother, the little spot 
I used to call my garden, where long hours 
We've staid to watch the budding things and 
flowers, 

Forget it not ! 

Plant there some box or pine, 
Something that lives in winter, and will be 
A verdant offering to my memory, 

And call it mine. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 237 

Sister, my young rose-tree, 
That all the spring has been my pleasant care, 
Just putting forth its leaves, so green and fair, 

I give to thee. 

And when its roses bloom, 
I shall be gone away, my short life done ; 
But will you not bestow a single one 

Upon my tomb ? 

Now, Mother, sing the tune 
You sung last night ; I'm weary and must sleep. 
Who was it called my name ? Nay, do not weep, 

You'll all come soon ! 

Morning spread o'er the earth her rosy wings. 
And that meek sufferer, cold and ivory pale, 
Lay on his couch asleep. The gentle air 
Came through the open window, freighted with 
The savoury odours of the early spring: 
He breathed it not : the laugh of passers by 
Jarred like a discord in some mournful tune. 
But wakened not his slumber. He was dead. 



238 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

A DIRGE. 

Beautiful on thy fair brow, 
Brother, death is sitting now ! 
Calmly as on mother's breast. 
Weary child, thou slumberest. 
That deep sleep, which ne'er again 
Wakes to mortal grief and pain. 

Round thee, in the waning year, 
Leaves are falling sad and sear. 
Soon will winter's sighing blast. 
O'er thee strew them thick and fast — 
But in thy green spring-tide, thou. 
Gentle brother, liest low. 

Flowers are fading on thy bier. 
Hands of love had scattered here — 
Meetly thus the sweets they fling 
O'er thee of their withering. 
In thy bright young bloom, like them, 
Severed from the natal stem. 

Yet, O brother, not for thee 
Flow our tears of agony ! 
Even midst the darkness left 
O'er the home of thee bereft, 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 239 

From thy spirit's radiant track 
Who, O who would call thee back ! 

When the rainbow shines o'erhead, 
Mourn we for the dew-drop fled ? 
Or, when springs the flower on high, 
That the buried seed should die? 
Far less bright than thou art now. 
Flower of earth, or heavenly bow. 

Brother, like some silenced tone 
Of sweet music, art thou gone ! 
Ere thy light of youth grew dim, 
God hath taken thee to Him, 
— Welcome were the hour to me, 
Brother, to lie down with thee ! 



TO A DYING INFANT. 

Sleep, little baby ! sleep ! 

Not in thy cradle bed. 
Not on thy mother's breast 
Henceforth shall be thy rest. 

But with the quiet dead. 



240 CONSOLATORY VEKSES. 

Yes — with the quiet dead, 
Baby, thy rest shall be. 

Oh ! many a weary heart, 

Weary of life's dull part. 

Would fain lie down with thee. 

Flee, little tender nursling ! 

Flee to thy grassy nest ; 
There the first flowers shall blow. 
The first pure flakes of snow 

Shall fall upon thy breast. 

Peace ! peace ! the little bosom 

Labours with shortening breath- 
Peace ! peace ! that tremulous sigh 
Speaks his departure nigh — 

These are the damps of death. 

I've seen thee in thy beauty, 
A thing all life and glee ; 

But never then wert thou 

So beautiful as now. 

Baby, thou seem'st to me. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 241 



THE THREE SONS; OR, FAITH 
TRIUMPHANT. 

BY REV J. MOULTRIE, A.M. 
I. 

I have a son, a little son, 

A boy just five years old, 
With eyes of thoughtful earnestness, 

A mind of gentle mould. 

They tell me that unusual grace 

In all his ways appears. 
That my child is grave, and wise of hearty 

Beyond his childish years. 

I cannot say how this may be, 

I know his face is fair. 
And yet his chiefest comeliness 

Is his sweet and serious air. 

I know his heart is kind and fond, 

I know he loveth me, 
But he loveth yet his mother more^ 

With grateful fervency* 



242 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

But that which others most admire, 
Is the thought that fills his mind, 

The food for grave, inspiring speech, 
He everywhere doth find. 

Strange questions doth he ask of me. 

When we together walk ; 
He scarcely thinks as children think, 

Or talks as children talk. 

Nor cares he much for childish sports, 

Dotes not on bat or ball. 
But looks on manhood's ways and works, 

And aptly mimics all. 

His little heart is busy still. 

And oftentimes perplexed 
With thoughts about this world of ours, 

And thoughts about the next. 

He kneels at his dear mother's knees, 

She teaches him to pray. 
And strange, and sweet, and solemn, then, 

Are the words which he will say. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 243 

Oh, should my gentle child be spared. 

To manhood's years, like me, 
A holier and a wiser man 

I trust that he will be. 

And when I look into his eyes, 

And on his thoughtful brow, 
I dare not think what I should feel. 

Were I to lose him now. 

II. 

I have a son, a second son, 

A simple child of three ; 
I'll not declare how bright and fair 

His little features be. 

I do not think his light blue eye 

Is like his brother's keen. 
Nor his brow so full of childish thought 

As his hath ever been. 

But his little heart's a fountain pure, 

Of kind and tender feeling, 
And his every look 's a gleam of light, 

Rich depths of love revealing. 



244 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

When he walks with me, the country folk, 

Who pass us in the street, 
Will shout for joy, and bless my boy, 

He looks so mild and sweet. 

A playfellow is he to all. 

And yet, with cheerful tone, 
Will sing his little song of love. 

When left to sport alone. 

His presence is like sunshine, sent 

To gladden home, the earth. 
To comfort us in all our griefs. 

And sweeten all our mirth. 

Should he grow up to riper years, 
God grant his heart may prove. 

As sweet a home for heavenly grace. 
As now for earthly love. 

And if, beside his grave, the tears 

Our aching eyes must dim, 
God comfort us for all the love 

Which we shall lose in him ! 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 245 

III. 

I have a son, a third sweet son. 

His age I cannot tell, 
For they reckon not by years and months. 

Where he hath gone to dwell. 

To us, for fourteen anxious months. 

His infant smiles were given. 
And then he bade farewell to earth, 

And went to live in heaven. 

I cannot tell what form is his. 

What looks he weareth now, 
Nor guess how bright a glory crowns 

His shining seraph brow. 

The thoughts that fill his sinless soul. 

The bliss which he doth feel, 
Are numbered with the secret things 

Which God will not reveal. 

But I know, for God hath told me this. 

That he is now at rest. 
Where other blessed infants are. 

On their Saviour's loving breast. 

x2 



246 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Whate'er befalls his brethren twain. 

His bliss can never cease ; 
Their lot may here be grief and fear, 

But his is certain peace. 

It may be that the tempter's wiles 
Their souls from bliss may sever, 

But, if our own poor faith fail not. 
He must be ours forever. 

When we think on what our darling is, 

And what we still must be ; 
When we muse on that world's perfect bliss. 

And this world's misery; 

When we groan beneath this load of sin, 

And feel this grief and pain, 
Oh, we'd rather lose our other two, 

Than have him here again. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 247 

A DESIRE AFTER DEATH, AS THE 
ENTRANCE INTO LIFE. 

^ Having a desire to depart^ and to he with Christ ^ 

CAROMAIA. 

Sweet it would be to lay 

My head and heart to rest 
Beneath the sod, where they 

Would be no more opprest ; 
Where they would feel no pain, 

Nor palpitate with grief, 
Nor long and pant in vain, 

For calm and sure relief. 

But sweeter, better far, 

To feel my spirit fly 
Where the good angels are, 

Beyond the starry sky; 
Free for a while from flesh, 

For ever freed from sin, 
Pure, spotless, joyful, fresh, 

To feel heaven's life begin ! 

But sweetest, best of all, 
Tfie resurrection-day, 



248 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

When Christ from sleep shall call 

My re-created clay, 
(In his own likeness made) 

To rise ; and clothe my soul 
With light that shall not fade, 

While endless ages roll. 



LINES SUGGESTED BY THE FOLLOWING 
PASSAGE IN A FRIEND'S LETTER. 

GEO. W. BETHUNE. 

Last week I buried my sweet little Mary ; she was three 
years and two months old, and had been ill four weeks. 
She was born on the Sabbath, taken sick on the Sab- 
bath, and buried on the Sabbath. During her illness 
she seemed to take great consolation in repeating the 
many hymns she had learned. ^' Mother," said she one 
day, '' I will meet you on the way to Jordan." We 
thought she was asleep, but she was gone. The choir 
sang, in the most touching manner, at the grave, " Un- 
veil thy bosom, faithful tomb," &c. {Rev, J. JS". Dan- 
forth.) 

Twas on a blessed morning of the blessed day of 

rest, 
I clasp'd thee as a gift from God, first to a father's 

breast j 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 249 

And sweetly didst thou nestle there, a thing of 
holy love, 

Till soul shone out thy pleasant face, like sun- 
shine from above ; 

And the accents of thy lisping tongue seemed, to 
my partial thought, 

Like music, from the angel guards around thy pil- 
low, caught. 

We called thee by her precious name, who poured 
the rich perfume 

With tears upon her Master's feet, and watched 
his early tomb: 

I loved thee well, how tenderly God only knows, 
but thou 

Art clasp'd unto the heart of One, who loves thee 
better, now. 

Twas on another blessed day, midst the Sabbath's 

holy hush. 
When first we marked upon thy cheek the fever's 

hectic flush — 
And a shuddering sense of mortal ill ran through 

thy gentle frame. 
Till we dared not speak the fearful thoughts that 

o'er our spirits came ; 



250 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

And many a weary, sleepless night, and weary, 

sleepless day, 
We watched, beside thy burning bed, thy young 

life pass away. 
Yet, there was joy amidst our grief, and hope, no 

tears could dim. 
As we listened to thy whispered prayers, and 

sweetly warbled hymn : 
Oh faithfully we watched thee then, amidst thy 

pangs, but thou 
Art fallen asleep on Jesus' breast, and He will 

watch thee now. 

And yet another Sabbath came, but we left the 
House of God 

To seek for thee a narrow house, beneath the ver- 
dant sod ; 

And many a bitter tear was stied, as we sadly 
asked for rdom. 

To hide our loved one from our sight within the 
silent tomb. 

Yet upward through those tears to heaven, each 
eye in hope was cast. 

That there will dawn for thee a day, the holiest 
and the last ; 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 251 

A day of endless life and joy, of fadeless, cloudless 

light. 
When God Almighty and the Lamb shall chase 

away the night. 
Oh ! lovely wert thou in our eyes, my beautiful, 

but thou 
Wilt wake with God's own likeness then upon thy 

cherub brow. 

Thou mayest not come again to us, we would not 
call thee back 

To tread with us, midst toil and gloom, the pil- 
grim's desert track : 

But oh ! that He, the lowly One,, w^ould grant us 
grace to be 

Like thee in childhke gentleness, and meek sim- 
plicity ; 

Then shall we follow where thou art, and in the 
trying day, 

When we must tread the vale of death, thou'lt 
meet us on our way — 

A radiant messenger of God, sent from the holy 
throng 

Around the throne, to welcome us with angel harp 
and song : 



252 CONSOLATOKY VERSES. 

Oh blest will be our meeting then, in that pure 
honne on high, 

Where sin no more shall cloud the heart, or sor- 
row dim the eye! 






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